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JVE  COALS, 

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FROM    THK    DISCOURSES   OF 


T.  DE  WITT  TALMAGE,   D.  D. 

AUTHOR  OF  "THE  MASQUE  TORN  OFF,"  "NIGHT  SIDES  OF  CITY  I.IKK," 

"FOES  OF  SOCIETY,"  "TRAPS  FOR  MEN,"  "CRUMBS  SWEPT 

UP,"  "AROUND  THE  TEA  TABLE,"   ETC.,   ETC. 


COLLATED   BY 

LYDIA  E.  WHITE. 

COMPILATION     AUTHORIZED      BY     DR.     TALMAGE. 


CHICAGO. 
FAIRBANKS  &  PALMER  PUBLISHING  CO. 

1886. 


COPYRIGHTED  BY 

L.  T.  PALMER, 

1885. 


PUBLISHER'S    PREFACE. 


In  issuing  "  Live  Coals  "  from  our  press  we  do  it  in 
the  firm  conviction  that  the  Christian  community 
of  the  English-speaking  world  will  appreciate  this 
volume.  The  work  embraces  the  most  popular  and 
powerful  discourses  of  Dr.  Talmage,  as  delivered  by 
him  during  the  past  year  in  the  Brooklyn  Tabernacle 
and  elsewhere,  and  are  here  for  the  first  time  collated 
and  published  in  book  form 

These  interesting  discourses  are  written  in  his 
most  powerful  descriptive  powers — sparkling  with 
graceful  imagery,  and  illustrated  with  interesting 
anecdotes.  They  will  be  found  the  keenest,  sharpest, 
and  most  vigorous  specimens  of  oratory  ever  written, 
and  for  originality,  force  and  splendor  will  bear  a 
favorable  comparison  with  the  greatest  pulpit  pro- 
ductions of  any  age  or  country. 

The  work  has  been  divided  into  four  sections  or 
parts.  I.  Coals  for- the  Individual.  II.  Coals  for  the 
Church  Militant.  III.  Coals  for  the  Moral  Realm. 
IV.  Coals  for  the  National  Arena.  They  are  Dr. 
Talmage's  best  efforts  in  his  earnest  aggressive  war- 
fare upon  the  foes  of  society  and  the  State,  they  ex- 
pose  the  traps  and  pitfalls  that  beset  the  youth  of 


vi  PUBLISHER'S  PREFACE. 

our  land  on  every  hand,  every  page  burning  with 
eloquent  entreaty  for  a  better  and  purer  life,  possess- 
ing an  intense,  soul-absorbing  interest  to  all  who 
desire  the  advancement  and  higher  development  of 
the  human  race.  The  editor  of  the  Christian  Age, 
London,  England,  truly  voices  the  sentiment  of  all 
admirers  of  Dr.  Talmage  when  he  said  :  "  For  knowl- 
edge of  human  life,  and  the  adaptation  of  Divine 
truth  to  the  whole  being  of  man — intellectual,  emo- 
tional, moral,  practical — and  for  the  power  of  apply- 
ing that  truth,  we  know  not  his  equal." 


CONTENTS. 


PREFACE 5 

/ 

TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 7 

BIOGRAPHY. 

Birthplace — Date  of  Birth — Parents — Reminiscences  of  his  Child- 
hood, as  given  at  London,  Eng.,  Aug.  12,  1885 — Anecdotes  of  Family 
— A  Great  Revival — The  Reformed  Dutch  Church — Conversion — 
College  Days — Theological  Seminary — Early  Ministerial  Life- -Pas- 
torate at  Belleville,  N.  J. — At  Syracuse,  N.  Y. — At  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
—Call  to  Brooklyn— The  Old  Tabernacle— Present  Stately  Edifice— 
The  Tabernacle  Audiences — The  Newspapers— The  Lay  College — 
Pastoral  Work — Secular  Criticism — Foreign  Criticism — Visit  to  Eng- 
land in  1885 — AtWesleyan  Chapel,  London — At  Presbyterian  Synod 
Hall,  Ediiiburg — Editorial  Criticism — The  Welcome  Home — Dr. 
Talmage's  Address 25 


SECTION  I. 

COAI^S  FOR  THE  INDIVIDUAL. 
CHAPTER  I. 

BUSINESS    LIFE. 

The  General  Impression — God's  Intentions — A  School  of  Energy 
— God's  Demands — Anecdote  of  a  Millionaire — A  School  of  Patience 
— Of  Useful  Knowledge — Traders — Manufactures — A  School  of  In- 
tegrity— Temptations  of  To-Day — Honesty — Scarcity  of  Commercial 
Honesty — Men  who  Have  Conquered — Heavenly  Rewards 43 

CHAPTER  II. 

GNATS    AND    CAMELS. 

The  Grub— The  Camel— Religious  Work— Humor— The  Infini- 
tesimals— The  Magnitudes — Large  versus  Small  Thefts — Prison  for 
Small  Crimes — Palaces  for  Large  Crimes — Nervousness  and  Dyna- 

vii 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

mite — Dishonest  Fruit  Dealers — False  Crop  Reports — Society  Needs 
Reconstruction — False  Statements  to  Assessors — All  More  or  Less 
Guilty 51 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE    INSIGNIFICANT. 

Trouble  Develops  Character — Is  an  Educator — A  Young  Doctor 
— Grecian  Mythology — Past  National  Distresses — Adversity  Proves 
Friendship — Life  a  Game  — Paths  <•£  Hardship  and  Darkness — The 
Hour  of  Conviction — Alone  —  No  more  Hunger  or  Thirst— Persecu- 
tion of  Christians — The  Reward — The  Importance  of  the  Insignifi- 
cant— Indolence — The  Gleaner 57 

CHAPTER  IV. 

PAUL    IN    A    BASKET. 

Great  Results  Hang  by  Slender  Tenure — Paul's  Life — His  Great 
Work — Moses'  Tiny  Craft — Rescue  ot'John  Wesley — Pitcairn  Islan  i 
— Infinity  made  up  of  Infinitesimals — What  you  "do,  do  Well — Un- 
recognized and  Unrecorded  Services — Paul's  Rescuers — Early  Strug- 
gles of  Ministers — The  Son  at  College — The  Sacrifices  of  the  Family 
— Early  Influences  and  Prayers 69 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE    NEEDLE. 

The  Praises  of  the  Needle — Operatives — Its  Triumphs — Its  Cruel- 
ties— Its  Charities — Practical  Benevolence — Earnest  Christian  Man — 
Against  Theorists — Female  Benevolence  Written  on  every  Page  of 
History — The  Women  of  the  Civil  War— The  Unmissed — Josephine's 
Funeral — The  Grief  of  the  French  Poor 76 

CHAPTER    VI. 

THE    SECRET    OUT. 

The  Amalekites — Saul's  Success — Agag's  Life  Spared — Wratli  of 
God — Samuel  not  Deceived — The  Hypocrisy  of  Saul— Hypocrisy 
Always  Exposed— Hypocrites  in  the  Church — The  Venom  of  Eccle>- 
iastical  Courts — Ottocar  and  Randolphus  I — Hypocrisy  not  Confined 
to  the  Church — Putting  oft"  Sin  on  Others — Extermination  Necessary 
— Mere  Profession  Amounts  to  Nothing — Value  of  a  Church  Certifi- 
cate in  Wall  Street— The  Church  up  with  the  Times — What  we 
Need 81 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    EVE. 

An  Imperial  Organ — The  Marvels  of  the  Human  Eye — Eyes  of 
Animals  and  Reptiles — The  Window  of  the  Soul — God's  Preparation 


CONTENTS.  IX 

for  its  Reception — Its  Residence — The  Contrivances  of  the  Eye — Its 
Elaborate  Gearing — The  Retina — The  Tear  Gland — Wonderful  Hy- 
draulic Apparatus — Anecdotes — Bell's  Treatise  on  the  Human  Hand 
— The  Recoil  of  the  Question — The  Great  Searching,  Overwhelming 
Eye  of  God 89 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    EAR. 

Architecture  of  Nations — The  Human  Ear — Its  Overmastering 
Architecture— Scientists— The  External  Ear — The  Middle  Ear — The 
Internal  Ear — The  Hidden  Machinery  of  the  Ear — Defies  Human  In- 
spection— Vibrations  per  Second — A  Life  Long  Study — The  Musical 
Composers — Its  Attempted  Conquest — Its  Wonders  Planned  by 
Jehovah — The  Sacred  Touch — Look  for  God  in  the  Infinitesimal — 
Nearness  of  God — The  Phonograph — The  Ear  of  God 97 

CHAPTER  IX. 

YOUR    PEDIGREE. 

A  Mighty  Question — Blue  Blood — Characteristics  from  Genera- 
tion to  Generation — The  Blood  of  Nationalities — Law  of  Heredity — 
Personal  Responsibility — Christian  Ancestry — Early  Association — 
The  Unwritten  Will  of  the  Christian  Parent — Vast  Responsibility 
Imposed— A  Trustee— The  Unwritten  Will  of  the  Wicked— Evil 
Parentage — Overcoming  its  Stigma — An  Heir  of  Immortality.. .  109 

CHAPTER  X. 

HOME. 

Piety  at  Home — Faithfulness  in  an  Insignificant  Sphere — The 
Definition  of  Home  by  Different  Persons — The  Contented  Home — 
The  Wretched  Home — Pirvate  Character — Reputation — Bad  Temper 
at  Home — Affable  in  Public — Home  a  Refuge — A  Political  Safe- 
Guard — Christian  Hearth-Stone — Home  a  School — Words  and  Deeds 
— Brightest  Place  on  Earth — Cheerfulness — Decorations  of  the  Home 
— Good  Cheer 121 

CHAPTER  XI. 

IS    LIFE    WORTH    LIVING? 

The  Evolutionist's  Guess — Ask  the  Young  Man — Ask  the  Man 
of  Forty — How  to  Decide  the  Question — Mere  Money  Getting  a 
Failure — The  Disease  of  Accumulation — Worldly  Approval — Intel- 
ligence— Social  Position — High  Social  Life — A  Life  that  is  Worth 
Living — Opportunities  and  Responsibilities — Peter  Cooper — Grace 
Darling — The  Reward 131 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

SOLICITUDE 

Cause  of  Parental  Solicitude — Parental  Imperfection — Conscious 
Insufficiency — The  Result  of  too  Strict  Discipline — Too  Great  Se- 
verity— Too  Lenient — Childish  Sinfulness — Nagging  at  Children — 
Temptations — A  Farewell  to  Innocence — Traps  set  for  the  Young — 
Sin  Invades  the  Sacred  Precincts  of  Home — No  Statistics  Compiled 
of  Ruined  Homes — The  Alleviations — Immediate  Correction — Inno- 
cent Hilarity 140 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

ANANIAS    AND    SAPPHIRA. 

Various  Ways  of  Lying— Acquired  and  Natural — The  Tendency  in 
Rural  Districts — The  Producer — Plotting  of  Speculators — God  Help 
the  Merchants — Fortunes  Made  by  Dishonesty — Large  Fortunes 
Made  Honestly — Dishonesties  of  Speech — The  Merchants — Cus- 
tomers— Artisans — Insincerity  of  Society — False  Statements  of  De- 
nominations— Misrepresentations  of  Individual  Churches — No  such 
Thing  as  a  Small  Sin 150 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE    BALANCE    SHEET. 

Short  Allowances — Taking  Stock — Christian  Liabilities — A  Title 
Deed — Refinement  of  Life — Sweet  Sounds  of  the  World— The  Vi- 
cissitudes of  Life — All  Things  for  our  Good — The  Christian's  Assets 
in  this  World  and  the  Next — Death,  a  Black  Messenger — Not  a  Ruffian 
—No  Tears— "All  are  Yours"— The  Invalid's  Reward— That  Glo- 
rious Consummation 159 

CHAPTER  XV. 

THE    NOONTIDE    OF    LIFE. 

The  Best  Part  of  Life's  Journey — Tranquilitv  and  Repose — Youth 
— Manhood — Old  Age — Wholesale  Slander — Looking  Backward — 
Do  Your  Best — All  Events  are  Connected — The  Picture  Galleries  of 
the  Past — Satan's  Appetite — The  Home  Gallery — Looking  Forward 
— Going  Through — A  Look  Beyond — Faith's  Strength 166 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

A    SCROLL    OF    HEROES. 

Merits  Acknowledged — Historical  Heroes — Heroes  of  Common, 
Everyday  Life— The  Sick-Room  Heroes— The  Heroes  of  Toil— 
The  Slain  by  the  Needle — Heroes  who  have  Endured  Domestic  In- 


CONTENTS.  XI 

justices — Social  Wrecks — A  Perpetual  Martyrdom — The  Drunkard's 
Wife — Heroes  of  Christian  Charity — Melrose  Abbey — The  Righteous 
Never  Forsaken — The  Great  Chaplain's  Cheer 174 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE    BURDENS    LIFTED. 

Wells  of  Water — Dr.  Talmage  Leaving  Home — A  Practical  Re- 
ligion Necessary — Business  Burdens — A  World  of  Burden  Bearing — 
Toiling  for  Others  the  Incentive — Grip,  Gouge  &  Co. — God's  Interest 
in  one's  Business — The  Story  of  a  Young  Accountant — God's  Sym- 
pathy— A  Weight  of  Persecution  and  Abuse — High  and  Holy  En- 
terprise Always  Abused — The  Treachery  of  the  Befriended — A 
Cynic — The  Ill-Treated  in  Good  Company 182 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE    DAY    WE    LIVE     IN. 

What  this  Age  Expects  of  Every  One- An  Aggressive  Christian — 
The  Prince  of  Wales'  Visit — Piety  too  Exclusive — The  Cactus  of 
North  Carolina — Self-Examination — A  Stalwart  Christian  Character 
— The  Century  Plant — Average  of  Human  Life — The  Years  Re- 
quired in  Earning  a  Livelihood — The  Years  Spent  in  Sleep  and 
Recreation — The  Years  Spent  in  Childhood  and  Sickness — The  Time 
Left  for  Exclusive  Service  of  God — Responsibilities  not  Discharged 
by  Liberal  Giving — Avoid  Reckless  Iconoclasm — Scoffing — Storm 
the  Fortress  of  Sin — Work  for  All — Unbounded  Faith— Fall  of 
Tyranny — The  March  of  the  Hosts  of  the  Living  God 189 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE    OLD    FOLKS'    VISIT. 

The  Blessings  of  a  Parental  Visit — Poor  Relations — Father  of 
i-,arge  Wealth  Should  Retain  Possession — The  Undutiful  Son — 
Share  Success  with  Parents — The  Praises  of  the  Unmarried  Sister- 
hood—A Queen  of  Self-Sacrifice— The  Maiden  Aunt— The  Bible 
Narratives  of  Unfilial  Conduct — Ruth  and  Naomi 200 

CHAPTER  XX. 

ORDINARY    PEOPLE. 

A  Religion  for  Ordinary  People — The  Vast  Majority — The 
Women  at  the  Head  of  Households — Food  Providers  Decide  the 
Health  of  the  World — The  Martyrs  of  Kitchen  and  Nursery — Ordi- 
nary Business  Men — Gray  Hairs  at  Thirty — Ages  Rapidly — Divine 
Grace  Wanted — Possess  the  Friendship  of  Christ — Ordinary  Farmers 
— Christ's  Best  Parables  Drawn  from  the  Farmer's  Life — The  Stone 
Mason — The  Carpenters — The  Physicians — If  Ordinary,  Thank  God 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

You  are  not  Extraordinary — Abuse  and  Slander  of  the  Extraordinray 
— Be  Content  with  Things  we  Have 205 

CHAPTER  XXI 

THE    LACHRYMAL. 

The  Lachrymals  of  the  Ancients — The  Story  of  Paradise  and  the 
Peri—The  Re'turn  of  the  Lost  Sheep— The  Wanderer— The  Falling 
Tear  Unreported — The  City  Missionary — The  Parents'  Solicitude — 
The  Training  of  Children — The  Heavenly  Record — Sanctified  Sor- 
rows— Gems  of  Light — Bright  Jewels  of  Heaven — God's  Bottle..  218 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

SUNSET. 

A  Dismal  Thing — The  Gloomy  Hour  of  Temptation — The  Strong 
Beneficent  Influence  of  Jesus  Necessary — "Abide  with  Us" — The 
Greatest  Folly— The  Cry  of  a  Child— The  Mother's  Care— The  Sud- 
den Loss  of  Earthly  Estate — A  Friend's  Treachery — The  Accumula- 
tion of  Mi -fortunes — Trouble  must  be  Met  and  Borne — The  Com- 
forting Influence  of  a  Christian's  Belief. 227 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE  FERRY  BOAT  OVER  THE  JORDAN. 

Trying  to  Extemporize  a  Way  to  Heaven — The  Miserable  Work 
of  Such — The  Ferry  Boat  to  Come  from  the  Other  Side — Thomas 
Walsh — A  Delusion  Broken — The  Journev  to  Heaven  is  not  Alone — 
Last  Testimony  of  the  Faithful — Only  a  Ferry — No  Great  and  Peril- 
ous Enterprise — A  Solid  Landing — A  Real  Place — John's  Material- 
istic Heaven  Satisfactory — The  Welcome  of  Friends — The  Recog- 
nition of  All — The  Romance  in  the  Life  of  Judson 232 


SECTION  II. 

COALS  FOR  THE  CHURCH  MILITANT.  241 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

DOWNFALL     OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

The  Rising  Sun  of  Our  Time— The  World  without  the  Sun— In- 
fidelitv  and  Atheism — The  World  wi'hout  Christianity —  Degrada- 
tion of  Womanhood — What  Christianity  has  done  for  Woman — 
What  Infidelity  Would  Do— The  Death  Bed  of  the  Wicked— The 
Mightiest  Restraints  of  To  day — The  Grand  March  of  Infidelity — 
W.'ll  Infidelity  Succeed? 243 


CONTENTS.  Xlll 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

EVOLUTION. 

No  Contest  Between  Science  and  Revelation — Witnesses  Pro  and 
Con — Herbert  Spencer — Huxley — Darwin — The  Bible  on  Evolution — 
A  Question  Propounded — Theory  of  Evolution  is  Infidel — Agassiz — 
Boast  of  Evolutionists  —Their  Theories  Shattered — Their  Wander- 
ings— Testimony  Against  Evolution — A  Magnificent  Theory — Sur- 
vival of  the  Fittest — Spontaneous  Generation — No  Natural  Progress 
— Natural  Evolution  Downward — Develops  Dishonesty — Theory  of 
Evolution  Older  than  Christianity ".252 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

THE    MISSING    LINK. 

The  Ancestral  Line— The  Brute— Man— The  Brain  of  the  Gorilla 
— The  Brain  of  the  Hottentot — Blood  Globule — A  Different  Creation 
— Darwin's  System — Species  Unchanged  and  Unchangeable — Your 
Predecessors — Evolution  a  Mystery —  Brutalizing  in  its  Tendency — 
Annihilation — The  Bible  Narration — Divine  Evolution — Monarchs 
of  Earth — Evolution  from  Contestant  to  Conqueror 267 

CHAPTER   XXVII. 

EVANGELISM    VINDICATED. 

A  Roman  Evangelist — Eating  the  Book — The  Creeds  of  the  Peo- 
ple— Evangelical  Religion — The  Belief  of  the  Different  Denomina- 
tions— How  they  are  Slandered — A  Charmed  Key — Two  Destinies 
Demanded  by  One's  Common  Sense — The  Trinity — Justification  by 
Faith — Regeneration — Reconstruction  Easily  Understood 276 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

SPLENDORS    OF    ORTHODOXY. 

An  Inspired  Bible — No  Element  of  Weakness — Stood  the  Assaults 
of  Time — Errors  in  Transcribing — Advanced  Thinkers — Freedom 
in  Religious  Thought  and  Discussion — Change  of  Theories — The 
Political  Parties— What  I  Believe  to  be  Right  —  What  Orthodoxy 
Has  Done — The  Influence  of  the  Entire  Bible — Splendors  of  Charac- 
ter— The  Certitudes — Palace  and  Penitentiary — Advancements  of 
Our  Time 284 

CHAPTER   XXIX. 

MENDING   THE    BIBLE. 

A  Risky  Business — Trie  Book  of  Genesis — Disbelief  of  Portions 
of  the  Bible — Liberty  of  Discussion — The  Heinousness  of  Fault 
Finding — The  Old  Gospel  Ship  Opposes  Expurgation — Implicit  Be- 
lief— Bible  Miraculously  Preserved — A  Matter  of  History — The  Cata- 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

logue  Unchanged  for  Ages — All  Attempts  to  Detract  or  Addto 
—Failures— The  Bible  Liked  As  It  Is— A  Division— Critics  Severely 
Handled 263 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE     GLORIOUS     MARCH. 

The  Glory  of  the  Church— The  Church  Ahead  of  the  World— 
Her  Possessions — The  Blessings  of  the  Poor — The  Church  Com- 
pared to  the  Moon — The  Only  Institution  That  Gives  Light  to  the- 
World — Weathered  all  Storms — Light  for  all  Classes  and  Conditions 
of  People — Compared  to  the  Sun — The  Great  Missions  of  Christ — 
The  Church  Triumphant  —  Religious  Enthusiasm  —  Christ  as  a 
Leader *.,.. 301 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

SHAMS    IN    RELIGION. 

The  Religion  the  World  Wants— A  Practical  Religion— What 
Such  a  Religion  Will  Do — Adulteration  of  Articles  of  Commerce — 
The  Remedy — Philanthropy  Does  Not  Atone  For  Sin — Mechanism 
Rectified — Religion  in  Agriculture — Religion  in  the  Learned  Profes- 
sions—Religion and  Good  Society — Misbionary  Work  Among  the 
Upper  Classes — The  Marriage  Relation — A  New  Departure — A 
Beautiful  Theory — Witnesses  of  Practical  Religion  310 

CHAPTER    XXXII. 

THE    BEAUTY    OF    RELIGION. 

The  Crystal  —  No  Happen-So's  in  Theology  —  Not  a  Slipshod 
Universe — A  House  of  Sorrow — Superior  in  Transparency — A  Trans- 
parent Bible — Surpasses  in  its  Beauty — Cross  and  Crown — Beautiful 
in  its  Symmetry — Not  a  Sta«.e  Religion — Superior  in  its  Transforma- 
tions— Minerals — Early  Dissipation — Chief  Transforming  Power  not 
of  this  World-Kill  Sin  or  it  will  Kill  You 322 

CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

RELIGION    AX    ANTISEPTIC. 

Grace  Like  Salt — Beyond  Human  Skill — Beautiful  and  Beautify- 
ing—A Healthy  Religion— What  the  Grace  of  God  Will  Do— A 
Necessity  of  Life — Must  Have  More  Faith — The  Preservative  of 
Governments — The  Trouble  with  Modern  Philosophy — The  Morning 
Star  of  Jesus 335 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

THE    SPICERY   OF    RELIGION. 

Theologians  Agree — Religion  Compared — A  Glorious  Inspiration 
--  Necessary  to  the  Housekeeper — An  Inspired  Religion — Lugubri. 


CONTENTS.  XV 

ous  Christians  a  Damage  to  Christianity — More  Sunshine  and  Fresh 
Air  Necessary  —  Cheer  the  Sick  and  Poor  —  The  Two  Ways  of 
Meeting  the  Poor — Church  Music — A  New  Crusade — A  Present 
and  an  Everlasting  Redolence — Chasing  the  Dead — Comfort  and 
Satisfaction 341 

CHAPTER  XXXV. 

LIVE    CHURCHES. 

Financial  Engagements  Promptly  Met  —  Half  Starved  Pastors 
— The  Niggardliness  of  Many  Churches  —  Punctuality  —  A  Grand 
Delusion  —  Congregational  Singing  —  The  Methodist  Church  En- 
circles the  World — A  Flourishing  Sunday  School — Vast  Multitudes 
Outside — Those  Little  Feet — That  Spark  of  Iniquity — Now  a  Great 
Army — Only  a  Child — Commodious  and  Appropriate  Architecture — 
A  Soul  Saving  Church — All  Must  do  their  Best 346 

CHAPTER   XXXVI. 

MUSIC    IN    WORSHIP. 

The  Best  Music — The  Scotch  Covenanters — The  Animalculse 
have  their  Music — The  Music  of  the  Bible — The  First  Organist — 
The  White  Robed  Levites — What  is  Appropriate  Music — Adaptive- 
ness  to  Devotion — A  Distinction — Church  Psalmody — Correctness — 
Spirit  and  Life — Drawling  and  Stupidity — Congregational  —  Our 
Duty — "  Gloria  in  Excelsis." 359 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

ABOLITION   OF    SUNDAY. 

The  Sabbath's  Sanctity — A  Seventh  Day  Rest  Necessary  for  Man 
and  Beast — Interesting  Testimony — Secular  Amusements — The  Grog 
Shops — The  People's  Rights — Opposed  to  all  Infractions — A  Paris 
Incident — A  French  Sabbath  Compared  to  an  American — The  May 
Flower — When  it  will  be  Destroyed 365 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

THE     BLOOD. 

Conscience — A  Personal  Knowledge  When  Sin  is  Committed — 
The  Moral  Man  Not  Exempt  from  Sin — Astray  in  Many  Directions 
—The  Bible's  Charge— The  "  Rider  on  the  White  Horse."— Died  for 
their  Faith— Different  Kinds  of  Hands— At  the  Sea  Beach— The 
Password  at  the  Gate  of  Heaven 372 

CHAPTER    XXXIX. 

CAN  THE  UNPARDONABLE  SIN  BE  COMMITTED  IN  OUR  TIME? 

The  Sin  Against  the  Holy  Ghost — Not  Possible  to  Commit  that 
Sin  Now — An  Irrevocable  Sin — Impossible  to  Correct  Mistakes — 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

God  Forgives  but  Nature  Neves — Correcting  Bad  Habits  in  Children 
-  Incidents  and  Anecdotes — Lost  Opportunities — Getting  Good — 
Usefulness — Now  is  Your  Time 378 

CHAPTER    XL. 

INTOLERANCE. 

Difference  in  Pronunciation —  Differences  in  Denominations — 
Liberty  of  Conscience — Agitation  Tends  to  Purification  and  Moral 
Health — Truth  will  Conquer — Bigotry  a  Child  of  Ignorance — Causes 
of  Bigotry — An  Especial  Mission — People  Disgusted — Sectarianism 
— How  to  Build — Astor  Library — English  Law  Against  the  Jew — 
Gospel  Platforms  —  How  to  Overthrow  Intolerance  —  Christian 
Charity 385 


CHAPTER   XLI. 

THE    WITNESS    STAND. 

Science  against  Inventions — Science  against  the  Resurrection  of 
Christ — A  Play  with  the  Skeptic — Testimony  versus  Argument — The 
Weapon  Used  in  this  Conflict — We  Are  Witnesses — What  It  Has 
Done  for  Us — Conversion  Alone  Conquers  Appetite — Power  of  the 
Cconforter — The  World  Powerless  to  Comfort — Power  to  Give  Com- 
posure— The  Deathbed  of  the  Christian — Their  Testimony  and  Tri- 
umphs  ..396 

CHAPTER  XLII. 

THE    GOSPEL    LOOKING-GLASS. 

The  Gospel — The  Tabernacle— The  Laver — The  Looking-glasses — 
Different  Mirrors — Ourselves  Seen  as  We  Are — God's  Mercies  Thank- 
lessly Received — Pride — Why  so  Few  Conversions — A  Laver  Nec- 
essary— Fresh  Testimony  Required — Where  the  Trouble  Lies — 
Pervades  Man's  Whole  Nature — Washing  Imperative,  not  Optional — 
Comfort 405 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 

RELIGION    IN    DRESS. 

The  First  Wardrobe— The  Goddess  of  Fashion— The  Victims  of 
Fashion — Fashion  with  Men — Animated  Checker  Boards — Corsets — 
Destroying  and  Deathful  Influences — Fraud — Expensive  Wardrobes 
Cause  of  Defaultings — Country  Dressed  to  Death — The  Tragedy  of 
Clothes— The  Foe  of  all  Alms  Giving—Greatest  Obstacles  to  Charity 
—"A  Love  of  a  Bonnet"— Public  Worship  Distracted— Belittles  the 
Intellect — No  Seat  in  Heaven  for  the  Devotee  of  Fashion 415 


CONTENTS.  XV11 

CHAPTER   XLIV. 

THE    COMING    SERMON. 

The  Sermon  of  To-Day — What  Is  the  Matter — Unsuited  to  the 
Age — Convert  the  Sermon — Full  of  a  Living  Christ — A  Loving 
Christ— A  Short  Sermon— Where  the  Trouble  Lies — Europe  Thrilled 
— A  Popular  Sermon— Theological  Professors— Churches  Thronged — 
An  Awakening  Sermon — An  Everyday  Sermon 425 


PART  III. 

COALS  FOR    THE  MORAL   REALM. 
CHAPTER   XLV. 

THE    GATES    OF    HELL 

The  Gates  Described — The  Tuilleries — Impure  Literature— Scien- 
tific and  Medical  Novelette  Literature — The  Leprous  Booksellers — 
Family  Libraries  Should  be  Explored — The  Dissolute  Dance — Indis- 
creet Apparel— The  Fashion  Plates  of  any  Age — Alcoholic  Beverage 
— The  Chief  Abetter  of  Sin — Gates  Swing  In — Never  Outward — The 
Ways  of  Escape— The  Christian  Press— No  Soft  Sentimentalists 
Wanted — The  Return  of  the  Wanderer 435 

CHAPTER  XLVI. 

INFLUENCE  OF    CLUBS. 

Men  Gregarious — Herbs  and  Flowers — Secret  Soceities  —  Two 
Specimens  of  Clubs — Profitable  or  Baleful  Influences — The  Test— 
The  Home — Moral  Bigamy — Domestic  Shipwrecks — The  Clubs  Sub- 
stituted for  the  Home — Obituary  Easily  Written — Scions  of  Aristoc- 
racy— Influence  a  Man's  Commercial  Credit — Its  Influence  on  One's 
Sense  of  Moral  and  Spiritual  Obligation — Two  Highways — Attacks 
the  Best  Men — The  Large  Admission  Fee — Influence  of  Fathers 
Upon  Their  Sons — Sacrifice  your  Money  Rather  than  your  Soul.  .446 

CHAPTER  XLVII. 

HEALTH    RESORTS. 

Watering  Places — Piety  Left  at  Home — Little  Piety  at  Health 
Resorts — Hard  to  be  Good — Elders  and  Deacons — Temptations — 
Baleful  Influence  of  Horse  Racing — The  Habitues  of  Races — Dis- 
honor and  Ruin — Statement  of  a  Leading  Sportsman — A  Sacrifice  of 
Physical  Strength — A  Poor  Rule — Hasty  and  Life-long  Alliances — 
Responsible  f  r  Many  Domestic  Infelicities — The  Soft-headed  Dude 


XV111  CONTENTS. 

— The   Frothy    Young    Woman — Baneful   Literature —  Intoxicating 
Beverages — Arm  Yourself  Against  Temptation 458 

CHAPTER    XLVIII. 

THE    ROLLER    SKATING   CRAZE. 

The  Lever — Balance  Wheel— Other  Wheels  —  Looking  for  a 
Healthful  Amusement— The  World's  Temptations — The  Theater- 
Does  the  Roller  Skate  Recreation  Afford  Healthful  Amusement? — 
Yes,  with  Restrictions — Proper  Precautions— One  Hour's  Exercise 
Daily — Great  Possibilities— Vulgarity  of  Immodesty — A  Chaperone — 
Well  Dressed  Men  Flirts — Avoid  Senseless  Prolongation — Let  the 
Law  of  the  Parlor  Dominate —  A  Craze  Deplorable — Remember 
One's  Youth — A  Good  Time — Solon's  Law — Recreation  an  Aug- 
mentation  470 

CHAPTER    XLIX. 

TOBACCO   AND   OPIUM. 

The  Herb— Yucatan  its  Birth  Place— Nearly  all  Use  It — A  Poison 
— Truths  Uttered  Against  the  Evil — Terrific  Unhealth — Depresses 
the  Nervous  System — Creates  an  Unnatural  Thirst — The  Drunkard's 
Grave  Strewed  with  Tobacco  Leaves — Witnesses — Incidents  Related 
— Killed  by  Tobacco— The  Ministry  Use  It — Unnecessary  Expense — 
Both  Sexes — A  Brilliant  Man— White  Poppy — Its  Age — The  Opiu  . 
Eater — God  Does  not  Hear  the  Prayer  of  Such— Chloral — Extirp. 
tion 484 

CHAPTER    L. 

SOCIAL    DISSIPATION. 

Dancing  —  The  Round  Dance  —  Dancing  Universal — Ancient 
Dancing — Present  Custom — God  Bless  the  Young — An  Abetter  of 
Pride — Physical  Ruin — From  Ball  Room  to  Grave  Yard — Usefulness 
Spoiled — A  Belittling  Process— An  Incident  —  Earnest  Work — A 
Vast  Multitude  Destroyed ' 497 

CHAPTER    LI. 

SPIRITUALISM    AN    IMPOSTURE. 

Mystery — Communications  Between  This  and  the  Next  World — 
— Fingers  of  Superstition — Modern  Spiritualism,  an  Old  Doctrine- 
Necromancers  of  Old — God's  Condemnation  of  Such — Undue  Ad- 
vantage Taken — Remarkable  Scholarship  of  Spirits — An  Affair  of 
Darkness — Ruin  Physical  Health — A  Marital  and  Social  Curse — The 
World  with  Spiritualism  at  the  Head — Produces  Insanity — False- 
hoods— Ruins  Disciples  and  Mediums — Ruins  the  Soul 506 


CONTENTS.  XIX 

CHAPTER    LII 

BOOKS. 

The  Mighty  Agency  of  the  Printing  Press— Its  Chief  Agency — 
Good  Journalism — An  Absorbing  Question — Keep  Aloof  from  Iniqui- 
tous— A  List  of  Good  Books —Three-fourths  of  Novels  Published  are 
Pernicious— False  Pictures  of  Human  Life — Indiscriminate  Readers 
—  How  to  Stem  the  Tide — Books  that  Corrupt  the  Imagination — 
George  Sand — The  Criminals  of  the  Country — Apologetic  for  Crime 
— The  Penalty — The  Midnight  Reader  of  Romances — Iniquitous 
Pictorials — A  Plague  Spot — The  Power  of  a  Bad  Book — Examine 
Your  Libraries— Charge!  Charge!! 516 

CHAPTER    LIII. 

ARE    THEATERS   IMPROVING? 

Progression  of  the  World — Great  Actors — Secular  Newspapers' 
Criticism — Depraved  Advertisements — Importation  of  Bad  Morals — 
Degenerate  Players — An  Awful  Decadence — East  Lynne— No  Moral 
Elevation  in  the  Modern  Play — The  Drama — An  Echo  of  the 
Human  Soul — Advice  to  Young  Men — Freshen  up  your  Work — 
Avoid  Being  Led  into  Sin 531 

CHAPTER   LIV. 

ROMANCE  OF   CRIME. 

Halo  Around  Iniquity — The  Fascinations  Thrown  around  Crime 
— Fraud — Jim  Fiske,  the  Peddler — An  Irresistible  Impression — Get- 
ing  One's  Hand  In — The  Dishonesties  of  Commercial  Life — Gain 
Obtained  by  Iniquity  Easily  Lost — Trust  Funds — Libertinism — 
Unfair  Treatment  of  Female  Sex — The  Pulpit  Must  Awake — Assas- 
sination— Murder — Capital  Punishment — Stand  Independent  of  Evil 
Influences 541 

CHAPTER   LV. 

ABUSE  OF  TRUST    FUNDS. 

The  Dead  Treasurer — Accounts  Squared — The  Dishonest  Fail- 
ures— An  Appalling  Fact — Responsibility-  of  Officials — The  Ineffi- 
cient Bank  Director — An  Orthodox  Swindler — Loss  of  Public  Confi- 
dence—  Banks — National  Blessings — An  Epidemic — Borrowing — 
Wall  Street  Speculation — Sound  the  Alarm — Religion  not  a  Church 
Delectation 552 

CHAPTER   LVI. 

WALL    STREET    DEFALCATION. 

The  Great  Wall  of  1685— Birthplace  of  the  U.  S.  Government- 
Coronation  and  Burial  of  Fortunes — Extravagance — Elegances  and 


XX  CONTENTS. 

Refinements — No  Iron  Rule — Honest  Failures  Rare — Pay  as  You 
Go — Superfluities — Expenditures  for  Tobacco  and  Liquor — Cause  of 
Pauperism — My  Text  at  the  Grave  of  a  Swindler — Swindling  the 
Physician  and  Undertaker — Cause  of  God  Impoverished — Keep  Your 
Credit  Good 563 


SECTION  IV. 

COALS  FOR  THE  NATIONAL  ARENA. 
CHAPTER  LVII. 

NATIONAL   RUIN. 

Tomb  of  a  Dead  Empire — Destruction  of  Babylon — Mortality 
among  Nations — A  Call  of  the  Roll — Political  Bribery — Legitimate 
Expenses — Purchase  of  Suffrage — Solidifying  of  Sections  —  Low 
State  of  Public  Morals — The  Millionaires  of  California — Son  of 
Cresus — How  to  Save  the  Nation — Who  Shall  Possess  this  Nation? 
Christ  or  Satan?— Who  Shall  Decide  It? 575 

CHAPTER    LVIII. 

EASY  DIVORCE. 

Infelicitous  Homes — Divorce — Free  Love  Advocates — Mormon- 
ism — A  Positive  Law  Now  on  the  Statute  Books — A  Pustulous  Lit- 
erature— The  Laws  of  the  States — The  Record  by  States — Easy 
Divorce  and  Dissoluteness  Twin  Brothers — What  we  Want — Dissat- 
isfaction no  Cause  for  Divorce — Constitutional  Amendment — Make 
Divorce  Difficult — Rigorous  Laws — A  Divine  Rage  Against  all 
Enemies  of  the  Marriage  State — Paradise  Regained 587 

CHAPTER    LIX. 

THE    ARCH    FIEND   OF   THE    NATIONS. 

Noah  Introduced  the  Deluge  of  Drunkenness — Unhealthful  Stim- 
ulants— The  Arch-Fiend's  Cauldron  of  Temptation — Greatest  Evil  of 
this  Nation — Statistics — Born  with  a  Thirst  for  Strong  Drink — The 
Last  Will  of  the  Drunkard — Bitters — Circulars  of  a  Brewers'  Associ- 
ation— A  National  Evil — Suffering  Mothers  and  Children — Death's 
Hand— The  Drunkard's  Home — The  Boast  of  Protagoras— Political 
Parties  Afraid— The  Church— Teetotalism 599 


CONTENTS.  XXI 

CHAPTER  LX. 

THE   DEMAND  OF    GOD   AND   CIVILIZATION. 

Political  Parties — Mormonism — A  Great  Evil — Necessity  of  Im- 
mediate Settlement  of  the  Question — Bigamy  Punished — Polygamy 
Unpunished — A  Plank  Anti-Mormonistic  Wanted — Immigration  of 
Mormons — Intermarriage  of  Nationalities — What  Are  We  Doing — 
What  Is  Demanded— The  Platforms  of  Political  Parties — God's 
Country — Prayer  Answered — Four  Doxologies 613 

CHAPTER   LXI. 

BOSSISM. 

The  Village  Boss — Slavery  of  American  Politics — Official  Pat- 
ronage— No  Peril — No  Crisis — The  Old  Lion — Party  Independence 
Advocated — Good  Example — Cry  Partisanship — Malediction  of  Public 
Men — Public  Life — A  Respecter  of  the  Christian  Religion — Chris- 
tianity in  Politics — The  Gospel  to  Be  Dominant — The  Brightest  Day 
in  our  History 624 

CHAPTER  LXII. 

THE    CHRISTIANIZED    VOTE. 

The  Sacred  Chest — Holds  the  Fate  of  the  Nation — Ancient  Forms 
of  Voting — First  Introduction  of  Ballot-Boxes — The  American  Ark 
of  the  Covenant — Its  Curses — Ignorance— Spurious  Voting — Intimi- 
dation— Bribery — Defamation  of  Character — Opinions  of  Political 
Opponents — The  Rowdy  and  Drunken  Caucus — Low  Politics — The 
Remedy — Property  Qualification — Thorough  Moralization  and  Chris- 
tianization 635 

CHAPTER    LXIII. 

CAPITAL    AND    LABOR. 

Greatest  War  of  the  World — Strikes — Pacification  a  Failure — 
Folly  of  Crying  Out  against  the  Rich — Or  by  Cynical  and  Unsym- 
pathetic Treatment  of  the  Laboring  Classes — Violence — The  Golden 
Rule  Applied  to  Both — The  Sermon  Olivetic — Anecdote  of  Wash- 
ington— Supply  and  Demand — Henry  Clay — The  Greatest  Friend  to 
Capital  and  Labor 647 

CHAPTER  LXIV. 

THE    MORAL    CHARACTER    OF   CANDIDATES. 

Wreck  of  Arabia  Petraea— The  Decalogue— The  Christly  Rule- 
Statements  of  Red-Hot  Partisanship — No  Especial  Liberty  Conferred 
— Unchastity — A  Moral  Leper — One  Sin  Followed  by  Others — All 
Are  Imperfect- -The  Man  to  Select  as  a  Candidate 660 


XX11  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   LXV. 

RULERS. 

Morals  of  a  Nation  Seldom  Higher  than  the  Virtue  of  the  Rulers 
— American  Rulers  Superior  to  all  other  Nations — Public  Wicked- 
ness— Incompetency  lor  Office — Intemperance — Defeats  Legislation 
— Defeated  our  Armies — Bribery — Not  Wholly  American — Ras- 
cality Among  Legislatures — Revolution  Ahead  Bonus — Siand 
Aloof — Faithfulness  at  the  Ballot- Box — Evangelize  the  People — Per- 
sonal Responsibility 667 

CHAPTER   LXVI. 

DEDICATORY    PRAYER. 

Delivered  at  the  Opening  of  the  New  Orleans  Exposition,  De- 
cember 1 6,  1884 678 


T.  DE  WITT  TALMAGE,  D.  D. 

Thomas  De  Witt  Talmage  was  born  on  the  /th 
of  January,  1832,  in  the  village  of  Bound  Brook, 
Somerset  County,  N.  J.  His  father  was  a  farmer, 

and  a  man  of  much  vigor  and  consistency  of  charac- 
ter ;  his  mother  a  woman  of  energy,  hopefulness  and 
equanimity. 

Both  parents  were  marked  in  their  characteristics, 
and  their  differences  blended  in  a  common  life  ren- 
dered their  home  one  of  harmony,  consecration,  be- 
nignance  and  cheerfulness.  The  father  won  the 
confidence  and  the  honors  a  rigid,  common-sense, 
truly  American  community  had  to  yield.  The 
mother  was  the  counseling,  quietly  provident  force 
which  made  her  a  helpmeet  indeed,  and  her  home 
the  center  and  sanctuary  of  the  sweetest  influences. 
The  family  was  a  deeply  religious  one. 

The  now  far-famed  De  Witt  said  on  August  12, 
1885,  at  the  "Faith  Cure"  Rooms,  Bethshan,  Lon- 
don : — 

"  I  tell  you  that  I  believe  in  prayer  because  there 
is  something  in  the  ancestral  line  that  makes  me  be- 
lieve. My  grandfather  and  grandmother  went  to  a 
great  revival  meeting  in  Baskingridge,  New  Jersey, 

25 


26  BIOGRAPHY. 

and  they  were  so  impressed  with  the  religious  service 
that  they  went  home  and  said,  If  we  could  only  have 
our  children  converted,  if  we  could  only  have  this 
great  influence  in  our  family  !  That  night  all  the 
young  folks  were  to  go  off  to  a  very  gay  party. 
Grandmother  said, '  Now,  when  you  are  all  ready  for 
the  party  come  into  my  room,  as  I  have  a  word  to 
say  to  you.'  She  was  somewhat  of  an  invalid,  not 
able  to  get  about  much.  The  children  came  into  the 
room  where  she  sat,  and  she  said,  '  Now  you  are  go- 
ing to  the  party,  going  to  have  a  very  gay  time.  I 
want  you  to  know  that  all  the  time  you  are  there 
your  mother  is  praying  for  you,  and  that  we  will 
kneel  and  pray  for  you  until  you  come  back.'  They 
all  went  to  the  gay  party,  and,  as  may  be  well  sup- 
posed, did  not  have  a  very  good  time.  They  knew 
their  mother  was  praying  for  them.  Grandmother 
went  to  bed,  and  the  next  morning  very  early  she 
heard  crying  and  sobbing  in  the  room  below.  It  was 
one  of  her  little  party  crying  to  God  for  mercy,  seek- 
ing a  new  heart,  wanting  to  act  on  the  Christian  life. 
My  Aunt  Phoebe  said  to  grandfather,  '  Go  down  and 
find  what  is  the  matter  ;  go  and  hunt  up  Samuel — he 
is  gone  to  the  barn  ;  he  feels  worse  than  I  do.' 
Grandfather  went  to  the  barn  and  found  Samuel 
there  kneeling  and  crying  to  God  for  mercy.  He 
told  him  the  way  of  salvation,  so  that  he  became  a 
minister  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  there  was  no  man  more 
useful  in  America  during  the  century  than  he.  Then 


BIOGRAPHY.  27 

Samuel  said, '  Go  to  the  wagon-house ;  David  is  there.' 
Grandfather  went  to  the  wagon-house.  There  was 
David,  afterward  my  own  father.  He  told  David 
the  way  to  the  cross.  David  became  a  Christian. 
David,  then  a  young  man,  had  some  one  to  whom  he 
was  affianced  at  the  foot  of  the  lane,  not  far  off — 
Catherine  Van  Nest,  afterward  my  mother.  He  told 
the  story  of  the  cross  to  her,  and  she  became  a  Chris- 
tian. A  great  awakening  resulted  as  this  story  went 
round  the  neighborhood,  and  people  heard  what 
things  were  going  on  in  Mr.  Talmage's  family. 
Why,  they  were  all  getting  converted,  and  the  whole 
family  were  converted  to  God.  And  finally,  as  many 
as  two  hundred  and  eighty  from  that  neighborhood 
stood  up  in  one  church  to  profess  Christ.  That  story 
lingered  in  my  mother's  mind  until  she  made  a  cove- 
nant, after  her  children  were  born>  with  five  of  her 
neighbors,  to  meet  and  pray  one  afternoon  of  each 
week  for  the  salvation  of  her  household.  These  five 
mothers  met.  I  did  not  hear  this  story  till  after 
my  mother's  death.  Nobody  knew  why  these  five 
persons  met,  there  was  a  sort  of  mystery  about  it. 
Sometimes  the  question  was  put, '  Mother,  where  are 
you  going?'  She  used  to  answer,  '  I  am  just  going 
off  a  little  while.'  They  met  to  pray  for  their  chil- 
dren ;  they  prayed  until  they  were  all  converted,  my- 
self the  last.  Oh !  I  believe  in  prayer.  1  believe  you 
can  get  just  what  you  ask  of  God  if  it  is  good  for 
you.  This  story  has  no  end." 


28  BIOGRAPHY. 

From  a  period  ante-dating  the  Revolution,  the  an. 
cestors  of  our  subject  were  members  of  the  Reformed 
Dutch  Church,  in  which  the  father  of  Dr.  Talmage 
was  the  leading  lay  office-bearer  through  a  life  ex- 
tended beyond  fourscore  years,  and  of  his  numerous 
family,  four  sons  are  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  of 
whom  our  subject  is  the  youngest.  The  story  of  his 
life  is  a  simple  one.  He  became  a  Christian  before 
he  was  twenty  ;  took  the  course  of  study  preparatory 
to  college,  much  the  same  as  other  young  men,  and 
was  graduated  at  the  New  York  University,  in  1853. 
His  earliest  preference  was  the  law,  the  study  of 
which  he  pursued  for  a  year  after  his  graduation,  but 
the  unrest  within  him,  the  voice  of  which  soon  be- 
came, "Woe  is  me  if  I  preach  not  the  Gospel,"  turned 
his  steps  toward  the  ministry,  and  he  entered  the  New 
Brunswick,  (N.  J^)  Theological  Seminary  preparatory 
thereto.  This  step  was  extremely  gratifying  to  his 
parents,  and  thereby  one  of  their  fondest  hopes  was 
realized,  although  they  had  not  urged  the  course. 
He  was  plainly  led  of  the  Lord,  and  not  man.  The 
faculties  which  would  have  made  him  one  of  the 
greatest  jury  advocates  of  the  age,  thus  were  pre- 
served for  the  saving  of  the  souls  of  men,  and  "He 
leadeth  me,"  was  written  in  living  letters  of  light 
over  the  entrance  to  his  lifework. 

The  first  years  of  his  ministerial  life  seem  to  have 
been  disciplinary — initial  steps  to  his  great  mission, 
that  of  the  pastorate  of  the  Church  of  the  Brooklyn 


BIOGRAPHY.  29 

Tabernacle.  His  first  settlement  was  at  Belleville. 
New  Jersey.  For  three  years  he  there  underwent 
an  excellent  practical  education  in  the  conventional 
ministry.  His  congregation  was  one  of  the  most 
cultivated  and  exacting  in  the  rural  regions  of  that 
sterling  little  State.  It  was  known  to  be  about  the 
oldest  society  of  Protestantism  in  New  Jersey.  Jts 
records,  as  preserved,  run  back  over  two  hundred 
years,  but  it  is  known  to  have  had  a  strong  life  the 
larger  part  of  a  century  or  more.  Its  structure  is 
regarded  as  one  of  the  finest  of  any  country  congre- 
gation in  the  United  States.  The  value  (and  the 
limits)  of  sterotyped  preaching,  and  what  he  did  not 
know,  came  as  an  instructive  and  disillusionizing  force 
to  the  theological  tyro  of  Belleville.  There  also 
came  and  remained,  strong  friendships,  inspiring  re- 
vivals, and  sacred  counsels. 

By  natural  promotion,  three  years  at  Syracuse  suc- 
ceeded three  at  Belleville.  That  cultivated,  critical 
city  furnished  Mr.  Talmage  the  value  of  an  audience, 
in  which  professional  men  predominate  in  influence. 
His  preaching  there  grew  tonic  and  free.  As  Mr. 
Pitt  advised  a  young  friend,  he  "risked  himself." 
The  church  grew  from  few  to  many — from  a  state  of 
coma  to  robust  life.  The  preacher  learned  to  go  to 
school  to  humanity  and  his  own  heart.  The  lessons 
they  taught  him  agreed  with  what  was  boldest  and 
most  compelling  in  the  spirit  of  the  revealed  Word. 
But  those  whose  claims  were  sacred  to  him,  found 


30  BIOGRAPHY. 

the  saline  climate  of  Syracuse  a  cause  of  unhealth. 
Otherwise  it  is  likely  that  one  of  the  most  delightful 
regions  in  the  United  States  for  men  of  letters  who 
equally  love  nature  and  culture  —  Central  New 
York — would  have  been  the  home  of  Mr.  Talmage 
for  life. 

From  Syracuse  he  went  to  Philadelphia,  where  he 
spent  seven  years.  Here  his  powers  got  "set."  He 
learned  what  he  could  best  do.  He  had  the  courage 
of  his  consciousness,  and  he  did  it.  Previously,  he 
might  have  felt  it  incumbent  upon  him  to  give  to 
pulpit  traditions  the  homage  of  compliance,  though 
at  Syracuse,  "the  more  excellent  way" — any  man's 
own  way,  provided  he  have  the  divining  gift  of 
genius  and  the  nature  attune  to  all  high  sympathies 
and  purposes — had  in  glimpses  come  to  him.  He 
realized  that  it  was  his  duty  and  mission  in  the  world 
to  make  it  hear  the  gospel.  The  church  was  not  to 
him  a  select  few,  an  organization,  a  monopoly.  It  was 
meant  to  be  the  conqueror  and  transformer  of  the 
world.  For  seven  years  he  wrought  with  much  suc- 
cess on  this  theory,  all  the  time  realizing  that  his 
plans  could  come  to  fullness  only  under  conditions 
that  enabled  him  to  build  from  the  bottom  up,  an  or- 
ganization which  could  get  nearer  the  masses,  and 
which  would  have  no  precedents  to  hamper  it,  and 
no  traditional  ghosts  to  stand  in  its  pathway.  At  the 
end  of  this  time  he  was  called  simultaneously  to 
three  churches — one  in  San  Francisco,  one  in  Chi- 


BIOGRAPHY.  31 

cago,  and  one  in  Brooklyn.  That  in  Brooklyn  was 
poor ;  it  was  on  the  eve  of  dissolution ;  it  possessed 
but  nineteen  male  members ;  its  need  was  greatest, 
its  power  was  least.  To  Brooklyn  he  went,  and 
from  being  the  leading  preacher  in  Philadelphia,  he 
became  the  leading  preacher  in  the  world. 

His  work  here  is  known  by  all.  It  began  in  a 
cramped  brick  rectangle,  capable  of  holding  1200.  In 
less  than  two  years  that  was  exchanged  for  an  iron 
structure,  with  raised  seats,  the  interior  curved  like 
a  horseshoe,  the  pulpit  a  platform  bridging  the  ends. 
It  held  3,000  persons.  It  lasted  just  long  enough  to 
revolutionize  church  architecture  in  cities  into  har- 
mony with  common  sense.  Smaller  duplicates  of  it 
started  in  every  quarter,  three  in  Brooklyn,  two  in 
New  York,  one  in  Montreal,  one  in  Louisville,  any 
number  in  Chicago,  two  in  San  Francisco,  and  like 
numbers  abroad.  Then  it  was  burned,  and  the  pres- 
ent stately  and  sensible  structure  rose  in  its  place. 
Gothic,  of  brick  and  stone,  cathedral-like  above,  am- 
phitheatre-like below,  it  seats  5,000  persons,  and  it  is 
said  that  7,000  can  be  .accommodated  within  its  walls. 

In  a  large  sense  the  people  built  these  edifices. 
Their  architects  were  Leonard  Vaux  and  John  Welch 
respectively.  It  is  sufficiently  indicative  to  say  in 
general  of  Dr.  Talmage's  work  in  the  Tabernacle, 
that  his  audiences  are  always  as  many  as  the  place 
will  hold ;  that  twenty-three  papers  in  Christendom 
statedly  publish  his  entire  sermons  and  Friday  night 


32  BIOGRAPHY. 

discourses,  exclusive  of  the  dailies  of  the  United 
States ;  that  the  papers  girdle  the  globe,  being  pub- 
lished in  London,  Liverpool,  Manchester,  Glasgow, 
Belfast,  Toronto,  Montreal,  St.  Johns,  Sidney,  Mel- 
bourne, San  Francisco,  Chicago,  Boston,  Raleigh, 
Kansas  City,  New  York,  and  many  other  places.  No 
other  preacher  addresses  so  many  constantly.  The 
words  of  no  other  preacher  were  ever  before  carried 
by  so  many  types,  or  carried  so  far.  He  has  three  con- 
tinents for  a  church,  and  the  English-speaking  world 
for  a  congregation.  To  pulpit  labors  of  this  respon- 
sibility should  be  added  considerable  pastoral  work, 
the  conduct  of  the  Lay  College,  and  constantly  recur- 
ring lecturing  and  literary  work,  to  fill  out  the  public 
life  of  a  very  busy  man. 

The  judgment  of  his  generation  will  be  divided 
upon  him  just  as  that  of  the  next  will  not.  That  he 
is  a  topic  in  every  newspaper  is  much  more  signifi- 
cant than  the  fact  of  what  treatment  it  gives  him. 
Only  men  of  genius  are  universally  commented  on. 
That  the  universality  of  the  comment  makes  friends 
and  foes  proves  the  fact  of  genius.  This  is  what  is 
impressive.  As  for  the  quality  of  the  comment,  it 
will,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  be  much  more  a  revela- 
tion of  the  character  behind  the  pen  which  writes  it 
than  a  true  view  or  review  of  the  man.  It  can  be 
truly  said  that  while  secular  criticism  in  the  United 
States  favorably  regards  our  subject  in  proportion  to 
its  intelligence  and  uprightness,  the  judgment  of 


BIOGRAPHY.  33 

foreigners  on  him  has  long  been  an  index  to  the  judg- 
ment that  is  beginning  to  prevail  here.  No  other 
American  is  read  so  much  or  so  constantly  abroad. 

Previous  fo  his  visit  to  Europe,  in  the  summer  of 
1885,  he  had  declined  all  invitations  to  preach  or  lec- 
ture, as  he  needed  rest,  but  some  friendly  pressure 
induced  him  to  change  his  determination.  The  ser- 
mon he  preached  in  London  was  delivered  in  the 
celebrated  Wesleyan  Chapel,  behind  which  is  the 
grave  of  John  Wesley,  and  in  front  of  which  is  Bun- 
hill  Burial  Ground,  where  lie  the  bones  of  John 
Bunyan,  Isaac  Watts,  Daniel  DeFoe,  and  Home 
Tooke.  The  preacher  referred  in  his  sermon  to  this 
hallowed  ground.  The  Chapel  was  crowded  to  suf- 
focation. During  the  indoor  services  several  thou- 
sand people  stood  in  the  front  graveyard  and  in  the 
street,  impeding  travel,  and  awaiting  Dr.  Talmage 
outside.  After  the  regular  service  he  came  into  the 
church  porch  and  addressed  the  multitude  in  full 
voice,  and  then  with  a  smiling  face  gave  out  a  stirring 
hymn,  after  singing  which  the  populace  made  the 
policemen  happy  by  again  freeing  the  thoroughfare. 

Later  in  the  season  he  preached  in  the  United 
Presbyterian  Synod  Hall,  Edinburgh,  the  service  be- 
ginning at  half-past  two  o'clock.  Long  before  mid- 
day people  desirous  of  being  present  began  to  assem- 
ble at  the  main  entrance,  and  on  account  of  the 
number  who  had  arrived  by  twelve  o'clock  it  was 
resolved  to  open  the  doors.  In  less  than  an  hour  the 


34  BIOGRAPHY. 

spacious  building  was  filled  in  every  part,  all  the 
passages  and  some  of  the  windows  even  being 
occupied.  The  doors  were  closed  shortly  after  one 
o'clock,  those  outside  in  Castle  Terrace,  numbering 
several  thousands,  being  informed  by  means  of  bills 
which  were  exhibited,  that  the  hall  was  full.  The 
crowd  continued  to  increase  as  time  wore  on,  very 
much  disappointment  evidently  being  felt  at  being 
unable  to  gain  admission.  About  two  o'clock,  how- 
ever, an  intimation  that  Dr.  Talmage  would  in  the 
course  of  the  afternoon  address  the  gathering  in  Cas- 
tle Terrace  seemed  to  afford  relief.  Meanwhile,  sev- 
eral of  Sankey's  hymns  were  being  sung  inside  by  a 
choir,  aud  shortly  before  the  appointed  time  for  the 
commencement  of  the  services,  Dr.  Talmage  made 
his  appearance  on  the  platform,  accompanied  by  Mrs. 
Talmage,  and  their  son  and  two  daughters.  After 
devotional  exercises — Professor  Calderwood  having 
engaged  in  prayer — Dr.  Talmage  gave  out  as  his 
text,  "  I  will  show  wonders  in  the  heavens  and  in  the 
earth."  (Joel  2  :  30.) 

At  the  close  of  the  proceedings  Dr.  Talmage  shook 
hands  with  as  many  of  the  people  as  could  get  near 
him,  but  the  crowd  pressed  forward  in  such  a  way 
that  those  in  the  front  ranks  were  crushed  to  an  un- 
comfortable degree,  and  this  put  a  temporary  check 
upon  the  leave-taking.  Dr.  Talmage  then  re-entered 
the  building,  and  made  his  way  to  the  rear  of  the 
hall,  where  a  cab  was  in  waiting  for  himself  and  fam- 


BIOGRAPHY.  35 

ily.  Upon  his  appearance  a  crowd  rapidly  assembled, 
eager  to  shake  hands  with  him,  and  crowded  around 
the  cab  in  such  a  way  that  it  could  not  move  until 
the  police  cleared  a  passage.  A  few  gentlemen 
jumped  upon  the  cab  steps,  ladies  got  their  dresses 
soiled  with  mud  by  rubbing  against  the  wheels,  and 
some  more  adventurous  than  others,  got  their  toes 
crushed  by  the  wheels.  Dr.  Talmage  then  stood  and 
shook  hands  over  the  back  of  the  cab  as  hard  as  he 
was  able,  and  it  was  not  until  Lothian  Road  was 
reached  that  the  efforts  of  the  police  in  keeping  back 
the  crowd  were  no  longer  needed. 

His  extraordinary  imagination,  earnestness,  des- 
criptive powers  and  humor,  his  great  art  in  grouping 
and  arrangement,  his  wonderful  mastery  of  words  to 
illumine  and  alleviate  human  conditions,  and  to  inter- 
pret and  inspire  the  harmonies  of  the  better  nature, 
are  appreciated  by  all  who  can  put  themselves  in 
sympathy  with  his  originality  of  methods,  and  his 
high  consecration  of  purpose.  His  manner  mates 
with  his  nature.  It  is  each  sermon  in  action.  He 
presses  the  eyes,  hands,  his  entire  body,  into  the  ser- 
vice of  the  illustrative  truth.  Gestures  are  the  ac- 
companiment of  what  he  says.  As  he  stands  out 
before  the  immense  throng,  without  a  scrap  of  notes 
or  manuscript  before  him,  the  effect  produced  cannot 
be  understood  by  those  who  have  never  seen  it.  The 
solemnity,  the  tears,  the  awful  hush,  as  though  the 
audience  could  not  breathe  again,  are  oftimes  painful. 


36  BIOGRAPHY. 

His  voice  is  peculiar,  not  musical,  but  productive 
of  startling,  strong  effects,  such  as  characterize  no 
preacher  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic.  His  power 
to  grapple  an  audience  and  master  it  from  text  to 
peroration  has  no  equal.  No  man  was  ever  less  self- 
conscious  in  his  work.  He  feels  a  mission  of  evange- 
lization on  him  as  by  the  imposition  of  the  Supreme. 
That  mission  he  responds  to  by  doing  the  duty  that  is 
nearest  to  him  with  all  his  might — as  confident  that 
he  is  under  the  care  and  order  of  a  Divine  Master  as 
those  who  hear  him  are  that  they  are  under  the 
spell  of  the  greatest  prose-poet  that  ever  made  the 
Gospel  his  song,  and  the  redemption  of  the  race  the 
passion  of  his  heart. 

Now  in  the  full  meridian  of  his  powers,  the  arena 
of  his  life-work  constantly  widening  before  him,  long 
may  he  be  spared  to  enrich  the  world  with  the  ema- 
nations of  his  genius,  and  to  gather  souls  into  the 
great  Harvest-Home  of  the  blessed  Lord  and  Master. 

On  the  return  of  Dr.  Talmage,  September  14,  1885, 
a  large  number  of  his  congregation  chartered  a 
steamer,  and  went  down  the  Bay  to  meet  him.  On 
the  1 5th  a  formal  welcome  was  given  him  in  Brooklyn 
Tabernacle. 

Never  in  the  history  of  the  Brooklyn  Tabernacle  had 
there  been  such  an  immense  audience.  From  seven 
o'clock,  the  hour  at  which  the  doors  were  opened,  a 
steady  stream  of  humanity  poured  into  the  church, 
filled  the  galleries  and  the  main  floor,  crowded  around 


BIOGRAPHY.  37 

the  organ  and  choir,  filled  the  many  aisles  and  the 
wide,  semi-circular  corridor,  and  stretched  far  out 
into  the  street.  It  was  not  a  gathering  representative 
of  any  particular  sect  or  church,  but  it  was  an  assem- 
blage of  the  Christian  people  of  Brooklyn.  That  it 
was  from  the  Christian  people  of  the  city  rather  than 
from  Dr.  Talmage's  congregation  was  demonstrated 
by  the  presence  of  the  clergymen  of  different  denom- 
inations who  were  there  to  welcome  the  great  divine. 

The  platform  in  the  church  was  profusely  decorated 
with  flowers  for  the  occasion.  A  large  floral  arch 
over  six  feet  high,  composed  of  white  and  red  roses, 
astreax,  smilax,  camelias,  acacia  roses,  carnations,  and 
chrysanthemum  roses,  was  stationed  in  the  center  of 
the  platform  beside  the  presiding  officer's  chair.  On 
the  arch  were  inscribed  in  red  roses  the  words, 
"Welcome  Home."  On  either  side  of  the  platform 
were  immense  stands  of  gladioli  palms,  ferns,  and 
other  plants.  Immediately  above  the  organ  was  a 
large  floral  urn  surmounted  by  red  and  white  roses. 

At  eight  o'clock  the  sound  of  cheering  was  heard 
through  the  open  door  of  the  Tabernacle.  Every 
head  was  turned  doorward  to  catch  a  glimpse  of 
Rev.  Dr.  Talmage  as  he  entered  the  church.  The 
dense  crowd  gave  way  on  either  side,  and  a  storm  of 
applause  greeted  him.  The  solemnity  usually  ob- 
served in  a  church  was  for  a  moment  forgotten.  The 
sound  of  the  organ  from  which  welled  forth  the 
strains  of  the  well-known  "Hail  to  the  Chief"  mingled 


38  BIOGRAPHY. 

with  the  applause,  and  the  welcome  was  happy  and 
most  spontaneous.  Dr.  Talmage  himself  appeared  to 
feel  it  as  he  walked  down  the  aisle. 

The  scene  on  the  street  during  the  first  part  of  the 
welcoming  exercises  was  a  remarkable  one.  The 
church  was  crowded  in  every  part  before  eight 
o'clock,  but  long  after  that  hour  people  kept  coming 
toward  the  Tabernacle.  When  they  found  that  en- 
trance  was  impossible  they  stood  before  the  door. 
Soon  the  crowd  increased  to  great  dimensions,  and 
extended  nearly  the  length  of  the  block. 

As  he  shook  hands  with  the  chairman,  Rev  Henry 
Ward  Beccher,  the  plaudits  of  the  assembled  thou- 
sands reverberated  through  the  vast  auditorium. 
The  organ  played  "  Home  Again,"  and  when  the 
audience  had  sung  "  Praise  God  from  whom  all 
blessings  flow,"  every  one  thought  the  welcome  most 
complete. 

Addresses  and  music  followed,  and  a  welcome  was 
given  by  the  children  of  the  infant  class.  A  bright- 
eyed,  fair-haired  little  girl,  bearing  a  large  basket  of 
exquisite  flowers,  was  conducted  to  the  platform,  and 
stepping  to  Dr.  Talmage  she  made  a  pleasant  little 
presentation  speech,  in  which  she  expressed  the 
pleasure  of  the  Sunday-school  that  the  beloved  pas- 
tor was  back  again  among  his  people. 

Dr.  Talmage,  in  his  response  to  the  ovation,  among 
other  things,  said: 

"  We  found  everywhere  that  the  best  password  in 


BIOGRAPHY.  39 

Europe  is  the  word  America.  [Applause.]  That 
opens  all  the  doors,  and  that  wins  all  the  suavities. 
The  fact  is,  they  have  their  kindred  on  this  side  the 
sea.  Brothers  and  sisters  on  that  side,  brothers  and 
sisters  on  this  side.  They  have  forgotten  all  the  un- 
pleasantness we  had  in  1776,  and  1  have  no  doubt 
they  will  forgive  us  the  fact  that  yesterday  in  the 
boat  race  the  Puritan  came  in  sixteen  minutes  before 
the  Genesta. 

"  Fellow-citizens  of  all  callings  and  professions  and 
trades,  men  of  the  law,  men  of  the  healing  art,  men 
of  the  editorial  chair,  men  of  merchandise,  men  of 
mechanism,  and  all  the  wives  and  mothers  and  sisters 
and  daughters  of  the  dear  homes  of  Brooklyn,  you 
cannot  understand  how  deep  an  impression  you  have 
made  upon  me  by  the  flowers  and  the  music  and  the 
speeches  and  the  genial  appearance  of  your  own 
countenances.  You  have  put  me  under  everlasting 
obligation,  and  have  mortgaged  me  for  industrious 
Christian  service  all  my  life  long.  Shoulder  to 
shoulder  let  us  stand  in  the  great  work  of  trying  to 
make  the  world  better,  and  then  may  we  rest  not 
very  far  apart  in  the  adjoining  gardens  of  the  dead, 
and  may  God  grant  us  all  to  rise  in  the  resurrection 
of  the  just,  when  the  heavens  are  no  more." 

Professor  Simpson,  of  Edinburgh,  who  had  been 
One  of  Dr.  Talmage's  hosts  across  the  water,  said  in 
his  address  on  this  occasion : 

"  Up  to  this  particular  moment  I  thought  I  was  the 


4O  BIOGRAPHY. 

most  fortunate  man  in  creation,  because  such  a  sight 
as  this  I  don't  know  as  it  has  ever  been  seen  in 
America  before  ;  it  has  not  been  seen,  I  believe,  on 
my  side  of  the  Atlantic.  We  have  no  place  in  Edin- 
burgh where  it  was  possible  for  the  people  who 
wanted  to  hear  Dr.  Talmagc  to  get  near  him.  I  ven- 
tured myself  that  Sabbath  afternoon,  having  with  me 
some  of  my  own  family  and  a  daughter  of  the  Lord 
Mayor  of  London,  all  very  eager  to  hear  your  great 
pastor ;  but  I  could  not  get  within  a  street's  length 
of  the  place  where  the  crowds  were  gathered  around 
the  doors.  We  counted  ourselves  extremely  fortu- 
nate that  he  was  good  enough  to  come  and  take  dinner 
with  us  in  our  county  house  in  Midlothian.  At  that 
dinner-table  there  was  a  little  maid  from  the  far-off 
highlands  of  Sutherlandshire  who  asked  :  '  Is  the  Dr. 
Talmage  who  is  to  be  at  dinner  to-day  the  great  Dr. 
Talmage  whose  sermons  we  all  read  ?  '  When  she 
was  told  '  Yes,'  she  clapped  her  hands  and  said,  '  I 
will  write  to  my  mother  that  I  had  the  honor  of  wait- 
ing on  Dr.  Talmage.'  From  the  highest  to  the  low- 
est we  hold  his  name  in  reverence  and  in  love." 


PART   I. 


fop  the  Individual, 


CHAPTER    I. 

BUSINESS   LIFE. 

We  are  under  the  impression  that  the  moil  and  tug 
of  business  life  are  a  prison  into  which  a  man  is 
thrust,  or  that  it  is  an  unequal  strife  where  unarmed, 
a  man  goes  forth  to  contend. 

Business  life  was  intended  of  God  for  grand  and 
glorious  education  and  discipline,  and  if  I  shall  be 
helped  to  say  what  I  want  to  say,  I  shall  rub  some  of 
the  wrinkles  of  care  out  of  your  brow,  and  unstrap 
some  of  the  burdens  from  your  back. 

Business  life  was  intended  as  a  school  of  energy. 
God  gives  us  a  certain  amount  of  raw  material  out  of 
which  we  are  to  hew  our  character.  Our  faculties 
are  to  be  reset,  rounded,  and  sharpened  up.  Our 
young  folks  having  graduated  from  school  or  college 
need  a  higher  education,  that  which  the  rasping  and 
collision  of  everyday  life  alone  can  effect.  Energy  is 
wrought  out  only  in  a  fire.  After  a  man  has  been  in 
business  activity  ten,  twenty,  thirty  years,  his  energy 
is  not  to  be  measured  by  weights,  or  plummets,  or 
ladders.  There  is  no  height  it  cannot  scale,  and 
there  is  no  depth  it  cannot  fathom,  and  there  is  no 
obstacle  it  cannot  thrash., 

Now,  my  brother,  why  did  God  put  you  in  that 
school  of  energy  ?  Was  it  merely  that  you  might  be 
a  yardstick  to  measure  cloth,  or  a  steelyard  to  weigh 
flour  ?  Was  it  merely  that  you  might  be  better  quali- 

43 


44  BUSINESS   LIKE. 

fied  to  chaffer  and  higgle?  No.  God  placed  you  in 
that  school  of  energy  that  you  might  be  developed  for 
Christian  work.  If  the  undeveloped  talents  in  the 
Christian  churches  of  to-day  were  brought  out  and 
thoroughly  harnessed,  I  believe  the  whole  earth 
would  be  converted  to  God  in  a  twelvemonth. 
There  are  so  many  deep  streams  that  are  turning  no 
mill-wheels,  and  that  are  harnessed  to  no  factory- 
bands. 

Now,  God  demands  the  best  lamb  out  of  every 
Hock.  He  demands  the  richest  sheaf  of  every  har- 
vest. He  demands  the  best  men  of  every  generation. 
A  cause  in  which  Newton,  and  Locke,  and  Mansfield 
toiled, you  and  I  can  afford  to  toil  in.  Oh,  fora  fewer 
idlers  in  the  cause  of  Christ,  and  for  more  Christian 
workers,  men  who  shall  take  the  same  energy  that 
from  Monday  morning  to  Saturday  night  they  put 
forth  for  the  achievement  of  a  livelihood,  or  the 
gathering  of  a  fortune,  and  on  Sabbath  days  put  it 
forth  to  the  advantage  of  Christ's  kingdom,  and  the 
bringing  of  men  to  the  Lord. 

Dr.  Duff  visited,  he  said,  in  South  Wales,  and  he 
saw  a  man  who  had  inherited  a  great  fortune.  The 
man  said  to  him  :  "  I  had  to  be  very  busy  for  many 
years  of  my  life  getting  my  livelihood.  After  a  while 
this  fortune  came  to  me,  and  there  has  been  no  neces- 
sity that  I  toil  since.  There  came  a  time  when  I  said 
to  myself,  '  Shall  I  now  retire  from  business,  or  shall 
1  go  on  and  serve  the  Lord  in  my  worldly  occupa- 
tion?" He  said  :  "  I  resolved  on  the  latter,  and  I 
have  been  more  industrious  in  commercial  circles 
than  1  ever  was  before,  and  since  that  hour  I  have 
never  kept  a  farthing  for  myself.  I  have  thought  it 
to  be  a  <rreat  shame  if  I  couldn't  toil  as  hard  for  the 


BUSINESS    LIFE.  45 

Lord  as  I  had  toiled  for  myself,  and  all  the  products 
of  my  factories  and  my  commercial  establishments  to 
the  last  farthing  have  gone  for  the  building  of  Chris- 
tian institutions  and  supporting  the  Church  of  God." 
Oh,  if  the  same  energy  put  forth  for  the  world  could 
be  put  forth  for  God !  Oh,  if  a  thousand  men  in 
these  great  cities  who  have  achieved  a  fortune  could 
see  it  their  duty  now  to  do  all  business  for  Christ  and 
the  alleviation  of  the  world's  suffering! 

Business  life  is  a  school  of  patience.  In  your 
everyday  life  how  many  things  to  annoy  and  to  dis- 
quiet !  Bargains  will  rub.  Commercial  men  will 
sometimes  fail  to  meet  their  engagements.  Cash 
book  and  money  drawer  will  sometimes  quarrel. 
Goods  ordered  for  a  special  emergency  will  come  too 
late,  or  be  damaged  in  the  transportation.  People 
intending  no  harm  will  go  shopping  without  any 
intention  of  purchase,  overturning  great  stocks  of 
goods,  and  insisting  that  you  break  the  dozen.  More 
bad  debts  on  the  ledger.  More  counterfeit  bills  in 
the  drawer.  More  debts  to  pay  for  other  people. 
More  meannesses  on  the  part  of  partners  in  business. 
Annoyance  after  annoyance,  vexation  after  vexation, 
and  loss  after  loss. 

All  that  process  will  either  break  you  down  or 
brighten  you  up.  It  is  a  school  of  patience.  You 
have  known  men  under  the  process  to  become  petu- 
lant, and  choleric,  and  angry,  and  pugnacious,  and 
cross,  and  sour,  and  queer,  and  they  lost  their  cus- 
tomers, and  their  name  became  a  detestation.  Other 
men  have  been  brightened  up  under  the  process. 
They  were  toughened  by  the  exposure.  They  were 
like  rocks,  all  the  more  valuable  for  being  blasted. 
At  first  they  had  to  choke  down  their  wrath,  at  first 


46  BUSINESS   LIFE. 

they  had  to  bite  their  lip,  at  first  they  thought  of 
some  stinging  retort  they  would  like  to  make ;  but 
they  conquered  their  impatience.  They  have  kind 
words  now  for  sarcastic  flings.  They  have  gentle 
behavior  now  for  unmannerly  customers.  They  are 
patient  now  with  unfortunate  debtors.  They  have 
Christian  reflections  now  for  sudden  reverses. 
Where  did  they  get  that  patience  ?  By  hearing  a 
minister  preach  concerning  it  on  Sabbath?  Oh,  no. 
They  got  it  just  where  you  will  get  it — if  you  ever 
get  it  at  all — selling  hats,  discounting  notes,  turning 
banisters,  plowing  corn,  tinning  roofs,  pleading 
causes.  Oh,  that  amid  the  turmoil  and  anxiety  and 
exasperation  of  everyday  life  you  might  hear  the 
voice  of  God  saying:  "  In  patience  possess  your  soul. 
Let  patience  have  her  perfect  work." 

Business  life  is  a  school  of  useful  knowledge.  Mer- 
chants do  not  read  many  'books,  and  do  not  study 
lexicons.  They  do  not  dive  into  profounds  of  learn- 
ing, and  yet  nearly  all  through  their  occupations 
come  to  understand  questions  of  finance,  and  politics 
and  geography,  and  jurisprudence,  and  ethics.  Busi- 
ness is  a  severe  schoolmistress.  If  pupils  will  not 
learn  she  strikes  them  over  the  head  and  heart  with 
severe  losses.  You  put  $5,000  into  an  enterprise.  It 
is  all  gone.  You  say,  "  That  is  a  dead  loss."  Oh,  no. 
You  are  paying  the  schooling.  That  was  only 
tuition,  very  large  tuition — I  told  you  it  was  a  severe 
schoolmistress — but  it  was  worth  it.  You  learned 
things  under  that  process  you  would  not  have  learned 
in  any  other  way. 

Traders  in  grain  come  to  know  something  about 
foreign  harvests;  traders  in  fruit  come  to  know 
something  about  the  prospects  of  tropical  produc- 


BUSINESS    LIFE.  47 

tion;  manufacturers  of  American  goods  come  to 
understand  the  tariff  on  imported  articles  ;  publishers 
of  books  must  come  to  understand  the  new  law  of 
copyright ;  owners  of  ships  must  come  to  know  winds 
and  shoals  and  navigation ;  and  every  bale  of  cotton, 
and  every  raisin  cask,  and  every  tea  box,  and  every 
cluster  of  bananas  is  so  much  literature  for  a  business 
man.  Now,  my  brother,  what  are  you  going  to  do 
with  the  intelligence  ?  Do  you  suppose  God  put  you 
in  this  school  of  information  merely  that  you  might 
be  sharper  in  a  trade,  that  you  might  be  mor  e  sue 
cessful  as  a  worldling?  Oh,  no;  it  was  that  you 
might  take  that  useful  information  and  use  it  for 
Jesus  Christ. 

Can  it  be  that  you  have  been  dealing  with  foreign 
lands  and  never  had  the  missionary  spirit,  wishing 
the  salvation  of  foreign  people  ?  Can  it  be  that  you 
have  become  acquainted  with  all  the  outrages 
inflicted  in  business  life,  and  that  you  have  never 
tried  to  bring  to  bear  that  Gospel  which  is  to  extir- 
pate all  evil  and  correct  all  wrongs,  and  illuminate  all 
darkness  and  lift  up  all  wretchedness,  and  save  men 
for  this  world  and  the  world  to  come  ?  Can  it  be 
that  understanding  all  the  intricacies  of  business  you 
know  nothing  about  those  things  which  will  last  after 
all  bills  of  exchange  and  consignments  and  invoices 
and  rent  rolls  shall  have  crumpled  up  and  been  con- 
sumed in  the  fires  of  the  last  great  day?  Can  it  be 
that  a  man  will  be  wise  for  time,  and  a  fool  for 
eternity  ? 

Business  life  is  a  school  for  integrity.  No  man 
knows  what  he  will  do  until  he  is  tempted.  There 
are  thousands  of  men  who  have  kept  their  integrity 
merely  because  they  never  have  been  tested.  A  man 


48  BUSINESS    LIFE. 

was  elected  treasurer  of  the  State  of  Maine  some 
years  ago.  He  was  distinguished  for  his  honesty, 
usefulness  and  uprightness,  but  before  one  year  had 
passed  he  had  taken  of  the  public  funds  for  his  own 
private  use,  and  was  hurled  out  of  office  in  disgrace. 
Distinguished  for  virtue  before.  Distinguished  for 
crime  after.  You  cr~i  call  over  the  names  of  men 
just  like  that,  in  whose  honesty  you  had  complete 
confidence,  but  placec  in  certain  crises  of  temptation 
they  went  overboard. 

Never  so  many  temptations  to  scoundrelism  as 
now.  Not  a  law  on  the  statute  book  but  has  some 
back  door  through  which  a  miscreant  can  escape. 
Ah !  how  many  deceptions  in  the  fabric  of  goods;  so 
much  plundering  in  commercial  life  that  if  a  man 
talk  about  living  a  life  of  complete  commercial  accu- 
racy there  are  those  who  ascribe  it  to  greenness  and 
lack  of  tact.  More  need  of  honesty  now  than  ever 
before,  tried  honesty,  complete  honesty,  more  than 
in  those  times  when  business  was  a  plain  affair,  and 
woolens  were  woolens,  and  silks  were  silks,  and 
men  were  men. 

How  many  men  do  you  suppose  there  are  in  com- 
mercial life  who  could  say  truthfully,  "  In  all  the  sales 
I  have  ever  made  I  have  never  overstated  the  value 
of  goods ;  in  all  the  sales  I  have  ever  made  I  have 
never  covered  up  an  imperfection  in  the  fabric;  of 
all  the  thousands  of  dollars  I  have  ever  made  I  have 
not  taken  one  dishonest  farthing?"  There  are  men, 
however,  who  can  say  it,  hundreds  who  can  say  it, 
thousands  who  can  say  it.  They  are  more  honest 
than  when  they  sold  their  first  tierce  of  rice,  or  their 
first  firkin  of  butter,  because  their  honesty  and  integ- 
aity  have  been  tested,  tried  and  came  out  triumphant. 


BUSINESS    LIFE.  49 

But  they  remember  a  time  when  they  could  have 
robbed  a  partner,  or  have  absconded  with  the  funds 
of  a  bank,  or  sprung  a  snap  judgment,  or  made  a  false 
assignment,  or  borrowed  inimitably  without  any 
efforts  at  payment,  or  got  a  man  into  a  sharp  corner 
and  fleeced  him.  But  they  never  took  one  step  on 
that  pathway  of  hell  fire.  They  can  say  their  prayers 
without  hearing  the  clink  of  dishonest  dollars.  They 
can  read  their  Bible  without  thinking  of  the  time 
when,  with  a  lie  on  their  soul  in  the  Custom  House, 
they  kissed  the  book.  They  can  think  of  death  and 
the  judgment  that  comes  after  it  without  any  flinch- 
ing— that  day  when  all  charlatans  and  cheats  and 
jockeys  and  frauds  shall  be  doubly  damned.  It  does 
not  make  their  knees  knock  together,  and  it  does  not 
make  their  teeth  chatter  to  read  "as  the  partridge 
sitteth  on  eggs,  and  hatcheth  them  not ;  so  he  that 
getteth  riches,  and  not  by  right,  shall- leave  them  in 
the  midst  of  his  days,  and  at  his  end  shall  be  a  fool.'' 

Oh,  what  a  school  of  integrity  business  life  is !  If 
you  have  ever  been  tempted  to  let  your  integrity 
cringe  before  present  advantage,  if  you  have  ever 
wakened  up  in  some  embarrassment,  and  said : 
"  Now,  I'll  step  a  little  aside  from  the  right  path  and 
no  one  will  know  it,  and  I'll  come  all  right  again;  it  is 
only  once."  Oh,  that  only  once  has  ruined  tens  of 
thousands  of  men  for  this  life,  and  blasted  their  souls 
for  eternity.  It  is  a  tremendous  school,  business  life, 
a  school  of  integrity. 

There  are  men  who  fought  the  battle  and  gained 
the  victory.  People  come  out  of  that  man's  store, 
and  they  say :  "  Well,  if  there  ever  was  a  Christian 
trader,  that  is  one."  Integrity  kept  the  books  and 
waited  on  the  customers.  Light  from  the  eternal 


50  BUSINESS   LIFE. 

world  flashed  through  the  show  windows.  Love  to 
God  and  love  to  man  presided  in  that  storehouse. 
Some  day  people  going  through  the  street  notice 
that  the  shutters  of  the  window  are  not  down.  The 
bar  of  that  store  door  has  not  been  removed.  People 
say,  "What  is  the  matter?"  You  go  up  a  little 
closer,  and  you  see  written  on  the  card  of  that  win- 
dow :  ''  Closed  on  account  of  the  death  of  one  of  the 
firm."  That  day  all  through  the  circles  of  business 
there  is  talk  about  how  a  good  man  has  gone.  Boards 
of  trades  pass  resolutions  of  sympathy,  and  churches 
of  Christ  pray,  "  Help,  Lord,  for  the  godly  man 
ceaseth."  He  has  made  his  last  bargain,  he  has  suf- 
fered his  last  loss,  he  has  ached  with  the  last  fatigue. 
His  children  will  get  the  result  of  his  industry,  or,  if 
through  misfortune  there  be  no  dollars  left,  they  will 
have  an  estate  of  prayer  and  Christian  example, 
which  will  be  everlasting.  Heavenly  rewards  for 
earthly  discipline.  There  "  the  wicked  cease  from 
troubling,  and  the  weary  are  at  rest." 


CHAPTER     II. 

GNATS   AND   CAMELS. 

A  map  after  long  observation  has  formed  the  sus- 
picion that  in  a  cup  of  water  he  is  about  to  drink 
there  is  a  grub  or  the  grandparent  of  a  gnat.  He 
goes  and  gets  a  sieve  or  strainer.  He  takes  the  water 
and  pours  it  through  the  sieve  in  the  broad  light.  He 
says:  "  I  would  rather  do  anything  almost  than  drink 
this  water  until  this  larva  be  extirpated."  This  water 
is  brought  under  inquisition.  The  experiment  is  suc- 
cessful. The  water  rushes  through  the  sieve  and 
leaves  against  the  side  of  the  sieve  the  grub  or  gnat. 
Then  the  man  carefully  removes  the  insect  and  drinks 
the  water  in  placidity.  But  going  out  one  day,  and 
hungry,  he  devours  a  "  ship  of  the  desert,"  the  camel, 
which  the  Jews  were  forbidden  to  eat.  The  gastro- 
nomer has  no  compunctions  of  conscience.  He  suffers 
from  no  indigestion.  He  puts  the  lower  jaw  under 
the  camel's  forefoot,  and  his  upper  jaw  over  the 
hump  of  the  camel's  back,  and  gives  one  swallow  and 
the  dromedary  disappears  forever.  He  strained  out 
a  gnat,  he  swallowed  a  camel. 

It  is  a  very  short  bridge  between  a  smile  and  a  tear, 
a  suspension  bridge  from  eye  to  lip,  and  it  is  soon 
crossed  over,  and  a  smile  is  sometimes  just  as  sacred 
as  a  tear.  There  is  as  much  religion,  and  I  think  a 
little  more,  in  a  spring  morning  than  in  a  starless 
midnight.  Religious  work  without  any  humor  or 


52  GNATS  AND   CAMELS. 

wit  in  it  is  a  banquet  with  a  side  of  beef  and  that  raw, 
and  no  condiments,  and  no  dessert  succeeding.  People 
will  not  sit  down  at  such  a  banquet.  By  all  means 
remove  all  frivolity  and  all  pathos  and  all  lightness 
and  all  vulgarity — strain  them  out  through  the  sieve 
of  holy  discrimination ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  beware 
of  that  monster  which  overshadows  the  Christian 
Church  to-day,  conventionality,  coming  up  from  the 
Great  Sahara  Desert  of  Ecclesiasticism,  having  on  its 
back  a  hump  of  .sanctimonious  gloom,  and  vehe- 
mently refuse  to  swallow  that  camel. 

Oh,  how  particular  a  great  many  people  are  about 
the  infinitesimals  while  they  are  quite  reckless  about 
the  magnitudes.  What  did  Christ  say?  Did  He  not 
excoriate  the  people  in  His  time  who  were  so  careful 
to  wash  their  hands  before  a  meal,  but  did  not  wash 
their  hearts?  It  is  a  bad  thing  to  have  unclean 
hands;  it  is  a  worse  thing  to  have  an  unclean  heart. 
How  many  people  there  are  in  our  time  who  are 
very  anxious  that  after  their  death  they  shall  be 
buried  with  their  face  toward  the  east,  and  not  at  all 
anxious  that  during  their  whole  life  they  should  face 
in  the  right  direction  so  that  they  shall  come  up  in 
the  resurrection  of  the  just  whichever  way  they  are 
buried.  How  many  there  are  chiefly  anxious  that  a 
minister  of  the  Gospel  shall  come  in  the  line  of  apos- 
tolic succession,  not  caring  so  much  whether  he 
comes  from  Apostle  Paul  or  Apostle  Juclas.  They 
have  a  way  of  measuring  a  gnat  until  it  is  larger  than 
a  camel. 

My  subject  photographs  all  those  who  are  abhor- 
rent of  small  sins  while  they  are  reckless  in  regard  to 
magnificent  thefts.  You  will  find  many  a  merchant 
who,  while  he  is  so  careful  that  he  would  not  take  a 


GNATS   AND    CAMELS.  53 

yard  of  cloth  or  a  spool  of  cotton  from  the  counter 
without  paying-  for  it,  and  who  if  a  bank  cashier 
should  make  a  mistake  and  send  in  a  roll  of  bills  five 
dollars  too  much  would  dispatch  a  messenger  in  hot 
haste  to  return  the  surplus,  yet  who  will  go  into  a 
stock  company  in  which  after  a  while  he  gets  control 
of  the  stock,  and  then  waters  the  stock  and  makes 
$100,000  appear  like  $200,000.  He  only  stole  $100,- 
ooo  by  the  operation.  Many  of  the  men  of  fortune 
made  their  wealth  in  that  way. 

One  of  those  men,  engaged  in  such  unrighteous 
acts,  that  evening,  the  evening  of  the  very  day  when 
he  watered  the  stock,  will  find  a  wharf-rat  stealing  a 
Brooklyn  Eagle  from  the  basement  doorway,  and  will 
go  out  and  catch  the  urchin  by  the  collar,  and  twist 
the  collar  so  tightly  the  poor  fellow  cannot  say  that  it 
was  thirst  for  knowledge  that  led  him  to  the  dishon- 
est act,  but  grip  the  collar  tighter  and  tighter,  saying, 
"  I  have  been  looking  for  you  a  long  while  ;  you  stole 
my  paper  four  or  five  times,  haven't  you  ?  you  miser- 
able wretch."  And  then  the  old  stock  gambler,  with 
a  voice  they  can  hear  three  blocks,  will  cry  out: 
"  Police,  police ! "  That  same  man,  the  evening  of 
the  day  in  which  he  watered  the  stock,  will  kneel 
with  his  family  in  prayers  and  thank  God  for  the 
prosperity  of  the  day,  then  kiss  his  children  good- 
night with  an  air  which  seems  to  say,  "  I  hope  you 
will  all  grow  up  to  be  as  good  as  your  father ! " 

Prisons  for  sins  insectile  in  size,  but  palaces  for 
crimes  dromedarian.  No  mercy  for  sins  animalcule 
in  proportion,  but  great  leniency  for  mastodon  jn- 
iquity.  A  poor  boy  slily  takes  from  the  basket  of  a 
market  woman  a  choke  pear — saving  some  one  else 
from  the  cholera — and  vou  smother  him  in  the  horri- 


54  GNATS  AND  CAMELS. 

ble  atmosphere  of  Raymond  Street  Jail  or  New  York 
Tombs,  while  his  cousin,  who  has  been  skilful  enough 
to  steal  $50,000  from  the  city,  you  will  make  him  a 
candidate  for  the  New  York  Legislature! 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  uneasiness  and  nervous- 
ness now  among  some  people  in  our  time  who  have 
gotten  unrighteous  fortunes,  a  great  deal  of  nervous- 
ness about  dynamite.  I  tell  them  that  God  will  put 
under  their  unrighteous  fortunes  something  more  ex- 
plosive than  dynamite,  the  earthquake  of  his  omnipo- 
tent indignation,  It  is  time  that  we  learn  in  America 
that  sin  is  not  excusable  in  proportion  as  it  declares 
large  dividends,  and  has  outriders  in  equipage.  Many 
a  man  is  riding  to  perdition  postillion  ahead,  and 
lackey  behind.  To  steal  one  copy  of  a  newspaper  is 
a  gnat ;  to  steal  many  thousands  of  dollars  is  a  camel. 

There  is  many  a  fruit  dealer  who  would  not  con- 
sent to  steal  a  basket  of  peaches  from  a  neighbor's 
stall,  but  who  would  not  scruple  to  depress  the  fruit 
market,  and  as  long  as  1  can  remember  we  have  heard 
every  summer  the  peach  crop  of  Maryland  is  a  fail- 
ure, and  by  the  time  the  crop  comes  in  the  misrepre- 
sentation makes  a  difference  of  millions  of  dollars.  A 
man  who  would  not  steal  one  peach  basket  steals  fifty 
thousand  peach  baskets. 

Go  down  to  the  Mercantile  Library,  in  the  reading- 
rooms,  and  see  the  newspaper  reports  of  the  crops 
from  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  their  phraseology 
is  very  much  the  same,  and  the  same  men  wrote 
them,  methodically  and  infamously  carrying  out  the 
huge  lying  about  the  grain  crop  from  year  to  year 
and  for  a  score  of  years.  After  a  while  there  will  be 
a  "  corner  "  in  the  wheat  market,  and  men  who  had  a 
contempt  for  a  petty  theft  will  burglarize  the  wheat 


GNATS  AND   CAMELS.  55 

bin  of  a  nation  and  commit  larceny  upon  the  Ameri- 
can corn-crib.  And  in  this  hot  weather  some  of  the 
men  will  sit  in  churches  and  in  reformatory  institu- 
tions trying  to  strain  out  the  small  gnats  of  scoun- 
drelism  while  in  their  grain  elevators  and  in  their 
storehouses  they  are  fattening  huge  camels  which 
they  expect  after  a  while  to  swallow. 

'Society  has  to  be  entirely  reconstructed  on  this 
subject.  We  are  to  find  that  a  sin  is  inexcusable  in 
proportion  as  it  is  great.  I  know  in  our  time  the  ten- 
dency is  to  charge  religious  frauds  upon  good  men. 
They  say,  "  Oh,  what  a  class  of  frauds  you  have  in 
the  Church  of  God  in  this  day,"  and  when  an  elder 
of  a  church,  or  a  deacon,  or  a  minister  of  the  Gospel, 
or  a  superintendent  of  a  Sabbath-school  turns  out  a 
defaulter,  what  display  heads  there  are  in  many  of 
the  newspapers.  Great  primer  type.  Five  line  pica. 
"  Another  Saint  Absconded,"  "  Clerical  Scoundrel- 
ism,"  "  Religion  at  a  Discount,"  "  Shame  on  the 
Churches,"  while  there  are  a  thousand  scoundrels 
outside  the  church  to  where  there  is  one  inside  the 
church,  and  the  misbehavior  of  those  who  never  see 
the  inside  of  a  church  is  so  great  it  is  enough  to 
tempt  a  man  to  become  a  Christian  to  get  out  of  their 
company.  But  in  all  circles,  religious  and  irreligious, 
the  tendency  is  to  excuse  sin  in  proportion  as  it  is 
mammoth.  Even  John  Milton  in  his  "  Paradise  Lost," 
while  he  condemns  Satan,  gives  such  a  grand  descrip- 
tion of  him  you  have  hard  work  to  suppress  your  ad- 
miration. Oh,  this  straining  out  of  small  sins  like 
gnats,  and  this  gulping  down  great  iniquities  like 
camels. 

This  subject  does  not  give  the  picture  of  one  or 
two  persons,  but  is  a  gallery  in  which  thousands  of 


56  GNATS   AND   CAMELS. 

people  may  see  their  likenesses.  For  instance,  all 
those  people  who,  while  they  would  not  rob  their 
neighbor  of  a  farthing,  appropriate  the  money  and 
the  treasure  of  the  public.  A  man  has  a  house  to 
sell,  and  he  tells  his  customer  it  is  worth  $20,000. 
Next  day  the  assessor  comes  around,  and  the  owner 
says  it  is  worth  $15,000.  The  government  of  the 
United  States  took  off  the  tax  from  personal  income, 
among  other  reasons  because  so  few  people  would 
tell  the  truth,  and  many  a  man  with  an  income  of 
hundreds  of  dollars  a  day  made  statements  which 
seemed  to  imply  he  was  about  to  be  handed  over  to 
the  overseer  of  the  poor.  Careful  to  pay  their  pas- 
sage from  Liverpool  to  New  York,  yet  smuggling  in 
their  Saratoga  trunk  ten  silk  dresses  from  Paris  and 
a  half-dozen  watches  from  Geneva,  Switzerland,  tell- 
ing the  Custom  House  officer  on  the  wharf,  "  There 
is  nothing  in  that  trunk  but  wearing  apparel,"  and 
putting  a  five  dollar  gold  piece  in  his  hand  to  punc- 
tuate the  statement. 

But  let  us  all  surrender  to  the  charge.  What  an 
ado  about  things  here.  What  poor  preparation  for  a 
great  eternity.  As  though  a  minnow  were  larger 
than  a  behemoth,  as  though  a  swallow  took  wider 
circuit  than  an  albatross,  as  though  a  nettle  were 
taller  than  a  Lebanon  cedar,  as  though  a  gnat  were 
greater  than  a  camel,  as  though  a  minute  were  longer 
than  a  century,  as  though  time  were  higher,  deeper, 
broader  than  eternity. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    INSIGNIFICANT. 

Trouble  develops  character.  It  was  bereavement, 
poverty,  and  exile,  that  developed,  illustrated,  and 
announced  to  all  ages  the  sublimity  of  Ruth's  charac- 
ter. That  is  a  very  unfortunate  man  who  has  no 
trouble.  It  was  sorrow  that  made  John  Bunyan  the 
better  dreamer,  and  Dr.  Young  the  better  poet,  and 
O'Connell  the  better  orator,  and  Bishop  Hall  the  bet- 
ter preacher,  and  Havelock  the  better  soldier,  and 
Kitto  the  better  encyclopaedist,  and  Ruth  the  better 
daughter-in-law. 

I  once  asked  an  aged  man  in  regard  to  his  pastor, 
who  was  a  very  brilliant  man,  ''Why  is  it  that  your 
pastor,  so  very  brilliant,  seems  to  have  so  little  heart 
and  tenderness  in  his  sermons?"  "Well,"  he  replied, 
"the  reason  is,  our  pastor  has  never  had  any  trouble. 
When  misfortune  comes  upon  him,  his  style  will  be 
different."  After  awhile  the  Lord  took  a  child  out  of 
that  pastor's  house ;  and  though  the  preacher  was 
just  as  brilliant  as  he  was  before,  oh,  the  warmth,  the 
tenderness  of  his  discourses !  The  fact  is,  that  trouble 
is  a  great  educator.  You  see,  sometimes  a  musician 
sit  down  at  an  instrument,  and  his  execution  is  cold 
and  formal,  and  unfeeling.  The  reason  is  that  all  his 
life  he  has  been  prospered.  But  let  misfortune  or 
bereavement  come  to  that  man,  and  he  sits  down  to 
the  instrument,  and  you  discover  the  pathos  in  the 
first  sweep  of  the  keys. 

57 


58  THE   INSIGNIFICANT. 

Misfortune  and  trials  are  great  educators.  A 
young  doctor  comes  into  a  sick-room  where  there  is 
a  dying  child.  Perhaps  he  is  very  rough  in  his  pre- 
scription, and  very  rough  in  his  manneY,  and  rough 
in  the  feeling  of  the  pulse,  and  rough  in  his  answer 
to  the  mother's  anxious  question ;  but  years  roll  on, 
and  there  has  been  one  dead  in  his  own  house ;  and 
now  he  comes  into  the  sick-room,  and  with  tearful 
eye  he  looks  at  the  dying  child,  and  he  says,  "Oh. 
how  this  reminds  me  of  my  Charlie !"  Trouble,  the 
great  educator.  Sorrow — I  see  its  touch  in  the 
grandest  painting;  I  hear  its  tremor  in  the  sweetest 
song;  I  feel  its  power  in  the  mightiest  argument. 

Grecian  mythology  said  that  the  fountain  of  Hip- 
pocrene  was  struck  out  by  the  foot  of  the  winged 
horse  Pegasus.  I  have  often  noticed  in  life  that  the 
brightest  and  most  beautiful  fountains  of  Christian 
comfort  and  spiritual  life  have  been  struck  out  by  the 
iron-shod  hoof  of  disaster  and  calamity.  I  see  Dan- 

J 

iel's  courage  best  by  the  flash  of  Nebuchadnezzar's 
furnace.  I  see  Paul's  prowess  best  when  I  find  him 
on  the  foundering  ship  under  the  glare  of  the  light- 
ning in  the  breakers  of  Melita.  God  crowns  His 
children  amid  the  howling  of  wild  beasts,  and  the 
chopping  of  blood-splashed  guillotine,  and  the  crack- 
ling fires  of  martyrdom.  It  took  the  persecutions  of 
Marcus  Aurelius  to  develop  Polycarp  and  Justin 
Martyr.  It  took  the  Pope's  bull,  and  the  cardinals' 
curse,  and  the  world's  anathema  to  develop  Martin 
Luther.  It  took  all  the  hostilities  against  the  Scotch 
Covenanters  and  the  fury  of  Lord  Claverhouse  to 
develop  James  Ren  wick,  and  Andrew  Melville,  and 
Hugh  McKail,  the  glorious  martyrs  of  Scotch  history. 
It  took  the  stormy  sea,  and  the  December  blast,  and 


THE   INSIGNIFICANT.  59 

the  desolate  New  England  coast,  and  the  war-whoop 
of  savages,  to  show  forth  the  prowess  of  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers — 

"  When  amid  the  storms  they  sang, 

And  the  stars  heard,  and  the  sea; 
And  the  sounding  aisles  of  the  dim  wood 
Rang  to  the  anthems  of  the  free." 

It  took  all  our  past  national  distresses,  and  it  takes 
all  our  present  national  sorrows,  to  lift  up  our  nation 
on  that  high  career  where  it  will  march  long  after  the 
foreign  aristocracies  that  have  mocked,  and  the  tyran- 
nies that  have  jeered,  shall  be  swept  down  under 
the  omnipotent  wrath  of  God,  who  hates  despotism, 
and  who,  by  the  strength  of  His  own  red  right  arm, 
will  make  all  men  free.  And  so  it  is  individually, 
and  in  the  family,  and  in  the  church,  and  in  the 
world,  that  through  darkness,  and  storm,  and  trouble, 
men,  women,  churches,  nations,  are  developed. 

I  suppose  there  were  plenty  of  friends  for  Naomi 
while  she  was  in  prosperity ;  but  of  all  her  acquaint- 
ances, how  many  were  willing  to  trudge  off  with  her 
toward  Judah,  when  she  had  to  make  that  lonely 
journey  ?  One — absolutely  one.  I  suppose  when 
Naomi's  husband  was  living,  and  they  had  plenty  of 
money,  and  all  things  went  well,  they  had  a  great 
many  callers ;  but  I  suppose  that  after  her  husband 
died,  and  her  property  went,  and  she  got  old  and 
poor,  she  was  not  troubled  very  much  with  callers. 
All  the  birds  that  sang  in  the  bower  while  the  sun 
shone  have  gone  to  their  nests,  now  the  night  has 
fallen. 

Oh,  these  beautiful  sunflowers  that  spread  out 
their  color  in  the  morning  hour ;  but  they  are  always 
asleep  when  the  sun  is  going  down !  Jo  j  had  plenty 


60  THE   INSIGNIFICANT. 

of  friends  when  he  was  the  richest  man  in  Uz ;  but 
when  his  property  went,  and  the  trials  came,  then 
there  were  none  so  much  that  pestered  as  Eliphaz, 
the  Temanite,  and  Bildad,  the  Shuhite,  and  Zophar, 
the  Naamathite. 

Life  often  seem  to  be  a  mere  game,  where  the  suc- 
cessful player  pulls  down  all  the  other  men  into  his 
own  lap.  Let  suspicions  arise  about  a  man's  char- 
acter, and  he  becomes  like  a  bank  in  a  panic,  and  all 
the  imputations  rush  on  him,  and  break  down  in  a 
day  that  character  which  in  due  time  would  have  had 
strength  to  defend  itself.  There  are  reputations  that 
have  been  half  a  century  in  building,  which  go  down 
under  some  moral  exposure,  as  a  vast  temple  is  con- 
sumed by  the  touch  of  a  sulphurous  match.  A  hog 
can  uproot  a  century  plant. 

In  this  world,  so  full  of  heartlessness  and  hy- 
pocrisy, how  thrilling  it  is  to  find  some  friend  as 
faithful  in  days  of  adversity,  as  in  days  of  prosperity  ! 
David  had  such  a  friend  in  Hushai.  The  Jews  had 
such  a  friend  in  Mordecai,  who  never  forgot  their 
cause.  Paul  had  such  a  friend  in  Onesiphorus,  who 
visited  him  in  jail.  Christ  had  such  in  the  Marys, 
who  adhered  to  Him  on  the  cross.  Naomi  had  such 
a  one  in  Ruth,  who  cried  out :  "  Entreat  me  not  to 
leave  thee,  or  to  return  from  following  after  thee; 
for  whither  thou  goest,  I  will  go;  and  where  thou 
lodgest,  I  will  lodge ;  thy  people  shall  be  my  people, 
and  thy  God  my  God ;  where  thou  diest,  will  I  die, 
and  there  will  I  be  buried ;  the  Lord  do  so  to  me,  and 
more  also,  if  aught  but  death  part  thee  and  me." 

The  paths  which  open  in  hardship  and  darkness 
often  come  out  in  places  of  joy.  When  Ruth  started 
from  Moab  .toward  Jerusalem,  to  go  along  with  her 


THE   INSIGNIFICANT.  6 1 

mother-in-law,  I  suppose  the  people  said,  "  Oh,  what 
a  foolish  creature  to  go  away  from  her  father's  house, 
to  go  off  with  a  poor  old  woman  toward  the  land  of 
Judah !  They  won't  live  to  get  across  the  desert. 
They  will  be  drowned  in  the  sea,  or  the  jackals  of  the 
wilderness  will  destroy  them."  It  was  a  very  dark 
morning  when  Ruth  started  off  with  Naomi  ;  but  be- 
hold her  in  the  harvest-field  of  Boaz,  to  be  affianced 
to  one  of  the  lords  of  the  land,  and  become  one  of 
the  grandmothers  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Lord  of  glory. 
And  so  it  often  is  that  a  path  which  often  starts  very 
darkly  ends  very  brightly. 

When  you  started  out  for  heaven,  oh,  how  dark 
was  the  hour  of  conviction — how  Sinai  thundered, 
and  devils  tormented,  and  the  darkness  thickened! 
All  the  sins  of  your  life  pounced  upon  you,  and  it  was 
the  darkest  hour  you  ever  saw  when  you  first  found 
out  your  sins.  After  a  while  you  went  into  the 
harvest-field  of  God's  mercy ;  you  began  to  glean  in 
the  fields  of  divine  promise,  and  you  had  more 
sheaves  than  you  could  carry,  as  the  voice  of  God 
addressed  you,  saying  :  "  Blessed  is  the  man  whose 
transgressions  are  forgiven,  and  whose  sins  are  cov- 
ered." A  very  dark  starting  in  conviction,  a  very 
bright  ending  in  the  pardon,  and  the  hope,  and  the 
triumph  of  the  Gospel. 

So,  very  often  in  our  worldly  business,  or  in  our 
spiritual  career,  we  start  off  on  a  very  dark  path. 
We  must  go.  The  flesh  may  shrink  back,  but  there 
is  a  voice  within,  or  a  voice  from  above,  saying: 
"You  must  go*,"  and  we  have  to  drink  the  gall,  and 
we  have  to  carry  the  cross,  and  we  have  to  traverse 
the  desert,  and  we  are  pounded,  and  flailed  of  misrep- 
resentation and  abuse,  and  we  have  to  urge  our  way 


62  Tilt:    INSIGNIFICANT. 

through  ten  thousand  obstacles  that  have  been  slain 
by  our  own  right  arm.  We  have  to  ford  the  river, 
we  have  to  climb  the  mountain,  we  have  to  storm  the 
castle;  but  blessed  be  God,  the  day  of  rest  and  re- 
ward will  come.  On  the  tip-top  of  the  captured  bat- 
tlements we  will  shout  the  victory ;  if  not  in  this 
world,  then  in  that  world  where  there  is  no  gall  to 
drink,  no  burdens  to  carry,  no  battles  to  fight.  How 
do  I  know  it?  Know  it!  I  know  it  because  God 
says  so.  "  They  shall  hunger  no  more,  neither  thirst 
any  more,  neither  shall  the  sun  light  on  them,  nor  any 
heat,  for  the  Lamb  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne 
shall  lead  them  to  living  fountains  of  water,  and  God 
shall  wipe  all  tears  from  their  eyes." 

It  was  very  hard  for  Noah  to  endure  the  scoffings 
of  the  people  in  his  day,  while  he  was  trying  to  build 
the  ark,  and  was  every  morning  quizzed  about  his  old 
boat  that  never  would  be  of  any  practical  use ;  but 
when  the  drluge  came,  and  the  tops  of  the  mountains 
disappeared  like  the  backs  of  sea-rnonsters,  and  the 
elements,  lashed  up  in  fury,  clapped  their  hands  over 
a  drowned  world,  then  Noah  in  the  ark,  rejoiced  in 
his  own  safety,  and  the  safety  of  his  family,  and 
looked  out  on  the  wreck  of  a  ruined  earth. 

Christ,  hounded  of  persecutors,  denied  a  pillow, 
worse  maltreated  than  the  thieves  on  either  side  of 
the  cross,  human  hate  smacking  its  lips  in  satisfaction 
after  it  had  been  draining  His  last  drop  of  blood,  the 
sheeted  dead  bursting  from  the  sepulchre  at  His  cru- 
cifixion. Tell  me,  O  Gethsemane  and  Golgotha, 
were  there  ever  darker  times  than  those?  Like  the 
booming  of  the  midnight  sea  against  the  rock,  the 
surges  of  Christ's  anguish  beat  against  the  gates  of 
eternity,  to  be  echoed  back  by  all  the  thrones  of 


THE   INSIGNIFICANT.  63 

heaven  and  all  the  dungeons  of  hell.  But  the  day  of 
reward  comes  for  Christ ;  all  the  pomp  and  dominion 
of  this  world  are  to  be  hung  on  His  throne,  un- 
crowned heads  are  to  bow  before  Him  on  whose 
head  are  many  crowns,  and  all  the  celestial  worship 
is  to  come  up  at  His  feet  like  the  humming  of  the 
forest,  like  the  rushing  of  the  waters,  like  the  thun- 
derings  of  the  seas,  while  all  heaven,  rising  on  their 
thrones,  beat  time  with  their  scepters.  "  Hallelujah, 
for  the  Lord  God  omnipotent  reigneth  !  Hallelujah, 
the  kingdoms  of  this  world  have  become  the  king- 
doms of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ !  " 

"  That  song  of  love,  now  low  and  far, 
Erelong  shall  swell  from  star  to  star; 
That  light,  the  breaking  day  which  tips 
The  golden-spired  Apocalypse." 

Events  which  seem  to  be  most  insignificant  may  be 
momentous.  Can  you  imagine  anything  more  unim- 
portant than  the  coming  of  a  poor  woman  from  Moab 
to  Judah?  Can  you  imagine  anything  more  trivial 
than  the  fact  that  this  Ruth  just  happened  to  alight — 
as  they  say — just  happened  to  alight  on  that  field  of 
Boaz?  Yet  all  ages,  all  generations,  have  an  interest 
in  the  fact  that  she  was  to  become  an  ancestor  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  all  nations  and  kingdoms  must 
look  at  that  one  little  incident  with  a  thrill  of  un- 
speakable and  eternal  satisfaction.  So  it  is  in  your 
history  and  in  mine;  events  that  you  thought  of  no 
importance  at  all  have  been  of  very  great  moment. 
That  casual  conversation,  that  accidental  meeting — 
you  did  not  think  of  it  again  for  a  long  while ;  but 
how  it  changed  all  the  phase  of  your  life ! 

It  seemed  to  be  of  no  importance  that  Jubal  in- 
vented rude  instruments  of  music,  calling  them  harp 


64  THE   INSIGNIFICANT. 

and  organ,  but  they  were  the  introduction  of  all  the 
world's  minstrelsy ;  and  as  you  hear  the  vibration  of 
a  stringed  instrument,  even  after  the  fingers  have 
been  taken  away  from  it,  so  all  music  now  of  lute 
and  drum  and  cornet,  are  only  the  long-continued 
strains  of  Jubal's  harp  and  Jubal's  organ.  It  seemed 
to  be  a  matter  of  very  little  importance  that  Tubal 
Cain  learned  the  uses  of  copper  and  iron ;  but  that 
rude  foundry  of  ancient  days  has  its  echo  in  the  rat- 
tle of  Birmingham  machinery,  and  the  roar  and  bang 
of  factories  on  the  Merrimac. 

It  seemed  to  be  a  matter  of  no  importance  that 
Luther  found  a  Bible  in  a  monastery  ;  but  as  he 
opened  that  Bible,  and  the  brass-bound  lids  fell  back, 
they  jarred  everything,  from  the  Vatican  to  the 
furthest  convent  in  Germany,  and  the  rustling  of  the 
wormed  leaves  was  the  sound  of  the  wings  of  the 
angel  of  the  Reformation.  It  seemed  to  be  a  matter 
of  no  importance  that  a  woman,  whose  name  has  been 
forgotten,  dropped  a  tract  in  the  way  of  a  very  bad 
man  by  the  name  of  Richard  Baxter.  He  picked  up 
the  tract  and  read  it,  and  it  was  the  means  of  his  sal- 
vation. In  after  days  that  man  wrote  a  book  called 
"The  Call  to  the  Unconverted,"  that  was  the  means 
of  bringing  a  multitude  to  God,  among  others, 
Philip  Doddridge.  Philip  Docldridge  wrote  a  book 
called  "The  Rise  and  Progress  of  Religion,"  which 
has  brought  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  into 
the  kingdom  of  God,  among  others,  the  great  Wil- 
berforce.  Wilberforce  wrote  a  book  called  "  A 
Practical  View  of  Christianity,"  which  was  the 
means  of  bringing  a  great  multitude  to  Christ,  among 
others,  Legh  Richmond.  Legh  Richmond  wrote  a 
tract  called  "  The  Dairyman's  Daughter,"  which 


THE   INSIGNIFICANT.  65 

has  been  the  means  of  the  salvation  of  unconverted 
multitudes.  And  that  tide  of  influence  started  from 
the  fact  that  one  Christian  woman  dropped  a  Chris- 
tian tract  in  the  way  of  Richard  Baxter — the  tide  of 
influence  rolling  on  through  Richard  Baxter,  through 
Philip  Doddridge,  through  the  great  Wilberforce, 
through  Legh  Richmond,  on,  on,  on,  forever,  forever! 
So  the  insignificant  events  of  this  world  seem,  after 
all,  to  be  most  momentous.  The  fact  that  you  came 
up  that  street  or  this  street  seemed  to  be  of  no  im- 
portance to  you,  and  the  fact  that  you  went  inside  of 
some  church  may  seem  to  be  a  matter  of  very  great 
insignificance  to  you,  but  you  will  find  it  the  turning- 
point  in  your  history. 

Behold  Ruth  toiling  in  the  harvest-field  under  the 
hot  sun,  or  at  noon  taking  plain  bread  with  the 
reapers,  or  eating  the  parched  corn  which  Boaz 
handed  to  her.  The  customs  of  society,  of  course, 
have  changed,  and  without  the  hardships  and  expos- 
ure to  which  Ruth  was  subjected,  every  intelligent 
woman  will  find  something  to  do. 

I  know  there  is  a  sickly  sentimentality  on  this  sub- 
ject. In  some  families  there  are  persons  of  no  prac- 
tical service  to  the  household  or  community;  and 
though  there  are  so  many  woes  all  around  about 
them  in  the  world,  they  spend  their  time  languishing 
over  a  new  pattern,  or  bursting  into  tears  at  midnight 
over  the  story  of  some  lover  who  shot  himself!  They 
would  not  deign  to  look  at  Ruth  carrying  back  the 
barley  on  her  way  home  to  her  mother-in-law,  Na- 
omi. All  this  fastidiousness  may  seem  to  do  very 
well  while  they  are  under  the  shelter  of  their  father's 
house ;  but  when  the  sharp  winter  of  misfortune 
comes,  what  of  these  butterflies  ?  Persons  under  in- 


66  THE    INSIGNIFICANT. 

clulgent  parentage  may  get  upon  themselves  habits 
of  indolence ;  but  when  they  come  out  into  practical 
life,  their  soul  will  recoil  with  disgust  and  chagrin. 
They  will  feel  in  their  hearts  what  the  poet  so 
severely  satirized  when  he  said : 

"  Folks  are  so  awkward,  things  so  impolite, 
They're  elegantly  pained  from  morning  until  night." 

Through  that  gate  of  indolence,  how  many  men 
and  women  have  marched,  useless  on  earth,  to  a  de- 
stroyed eternity  !  Spinola  said  to  Sir  Horace  Vere: 
"  Of  what  did  your  brother  die?"  "  Of  having  noth- 
ing to  do,"  was  the  answer.  "  Ah  !  "  said  Spinola, 
"  that's  enough  to  kill  any  general  of  us."  Oh,  can 
it  be  possible  in  this  world,  where  there  is  so  much 
suffering  to  be  alleviated,  so  much  darkness  to  be  en- 
lightened, and  so  many  burdens  to  be  carried,  that 
there  is  any  person  who  cannot  find  anything 
to  do? 

Madame  de  Stael  did  a  world  of  work  in  her  time; 
and  one  day,  while  she  was  seated  amid  instruments 
of  music,  all  of  which  she  had  mastered,  and  amid 
manuscript  books,  which  she  had  written,  some  one 
said  to  her,  "  How  do  you  find  time  to  attend  to  all 
these  things?"  "Oh,"  she  replied,  "these  are  not 
the  things  I  am  proud  of.  My  chief  boast  is  in  the 
fact  that  1  have  seventeen  trades,  by  any  one  of  which 
I  could  make  a  livelihood  if  necessary."  And  if  in 
secular  spheres  there  is  so  much  to  be  done,  in  spir- 
itual work  how  vast  the  field  !  How  many  dying  all 
around  about  us  without  one  word  of  comfort !  We 
want  more  Abigails,  more  Hannahs,  more  Rebeccas, 
more  Marys,  more  Deborahs  consecrated  —  body, 
mind,  soul — to  the  Lord  who  bought  them. 


THE   INSIGNIFICANT.  67 

Ruth,  going  into  that  harvest-field,  might  have  said  : 
"There  is  a  straw,  and  there  is  a  straw,  but  what  is  a 
straw  ?  I  can't  get  any  barley  for  myself  or  my 
mother-in-law  out  of  these  separate  straws."  Not  so 
said  beautiful  Ruth.  She  gathered  two  straws,  and 
put  them  together,  and  more  straws,  until  she  got 
enough  to  make  a  sheaf.  Putting  that  down,  she 
went  and  gathered  more  straws,  until  she  had  another 
sheaf,  and  another,  and  another,  and  another,  and 
then  she  brought  them  all  together,  and  she  threshed 
them  out,  and  she  had  an  ephah  of  barley,  nigh  a 
bushel.  Oh,  that  we  might  all  be  gleaners ! 

Elihu  Burritt  learned  many  things  while  toiling  in 
a  blacksmith's  shop.  Abercrombie,  the  world-re- 
nowned philosopher,  was  a  philosopher  in  Scotland, 
and  he  got  his  philosophy,  or  the  chiel  part  of  it, 
while,  as  a  physician,  he  was  waiting  for  the  door  of 
the  sick-room  to  open.  Yet  how  many  there  are  in 
this  day  who  say  they  are  so  busy  they  have  no  time 
for  mental  or  spiritual  improvement ;  the  great  duties 
of  life  cross  the  field  like  strong  reapers,  and  carry 
off  all  the  hours,  and  there  is  only  here  and  there  a 
fragment  left,  that  is  not  worth  gleaning.  Ah,  my 
friends,  you  could  go  into  the  busiest  day  and  busiest 
week  of  your  life  and  find  golden  opportunities, 
which,  gathered,  might  at  last  make  a  whole  sheaf 
for  the  Lord's  garner.  It  is  the  stray  opportunities 
and  the  stray  privileges  which,  taken  up  and  bound 
together,  and  beaten  out,  will  at  last  fill  you  with 
much  joy. 

There  are  a  few  moments  left  worth  the  gleaning. 
Now,  Ruth,  to  the  field !  May  each  one  have  a  meas- 
ure full  and  running  over !  Oh,  you  gleaners,  to  the 
field!  And  if  there  be  in  your  household  an  aged 


68  THE  INSIGNIFICANT 

one,  or  a  sick  relative  that  is  not  strong  enough  to 
come  forth  and  toil  in  this  field,  then  let  Ruth  take 
home  to  feeble  Naomi  this  sheaf  of  gleanings:  "He 
that  goeth  forth  and  weepeth,  bearing  precious  seed, 
shall  doubtless  come  again  with  rejoicing,  bringing 
his  sheaves  with  him."  May  the  Lord  God  of  Ruth 
and  Naomi  be  our  portion  forever ! 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PAUL   IN   A   BASKET. 

"  Through  a  window  in  a  basket  was  I  let  down 
by  the  wall/' 

On  what  a  slender  tenure  great  results  hang.  The 
ropemaker  who  twisted  that  cord  fastened  to  that 
lowering  basket  never  knew  how  much  would 
depend  on  the  strength  of  it.  How  if  it  had  been 
broken  and  the  apostle's  life  had  been  dashed  out? 
What  would  have  become  of  the  Christian  Church? 
All  that  magnificent  missionary  work  in  Pamphilia, 
Cappadocia,  Galatia,  Macedonia,  would  never  have 
been  accomplished.  All  his  writings  that  make  up 
so  indispensable  and  enchanting  a  part  of  the  New 
Testament  would  never  have  been  written.  The 
story  of  resurrection  would  never  have  been  so 
gloriously  told  as  he  told  it.  The  example  of  heroic 
and  triumphant  endurance  at  Philippi,  in  the  Medi- 
terranean euroclydon,  under  flagellation  and  at  his 
beheading,  would  not  have  kindled  the  courage  of 
ten  thousand  martyrdoms.  But  that  rope,  holding 
basket,  how  much  depended  on  it?  So  again  and 
again,  great  results  have  hung  on  what  seemed 
slender  circumstances. 

Did  ever  ship  of  many  thousand  tons  crossing  the 
sea  have  such  important  passenger  as  had  once  a 
boat  of  leaves  from  taffrail  to  stern,  only  three  or  four 
feet,  the  vessel  made  waterproof  bv  a  coat  of  bitu- 

69 


70  PAUL   IN   A   BASKET. 

men,  and  floating  on  the  Nile  with  the  infant  law- 
giver of  the  Jews  on  board  ?  What  if  some  crocodile 
should  crunch  it?  What  if  some  of  the  cattle  wading 
in  for  a  drink  should  sink  it?  Vessels  of  war  some- 
times carry  forty  guns  looking  through  the  port- 
holes, ready  to  open  battle.  But  that  tiny  craft  on 
the  Nile  seems  to  be  armed  with  all  the  guns  of 
thunder  that  bombarded  Sinai  at  the  law-giving. 
On  how  fragile  craft  sailed  how  much  of  historical 

importance! 

The  parsonage  at  Epworth,  England,  is  on  fire  in 
the  night,  and  the  father  rushed  through  the  hallway 
for  the  rescue  of  his  children.  Seven  children  are 
out  and  safe  on  the  ground,  but  one  remains  in  the 
consuming  building.  That  one  wakes,  and  finding 
his  bed  on  fire,  and  the  building  crumbling,  comes 
to  the  window,  and  two  peasants  make  a  ladder  of 
their  bodies,  one  peasant  standing  on  the  shoulder  of 
the  other,  and  down  the  human  ladder  the  boy  de- 
scends— John  Wesley.  If  you  would  know  how 
much  depended  on  that  ladder  of  peasants,  ask  the 
millions  of  Methodists  on  both  sides  of  the  sea.  Ask 
their  mission  stations  all  around  the  world.  Ask 
their  hundreds  of  thousands  already  ascended  to  join 
their  founder,  who  would  have  perished  but  for  the 
living  stairs  of  peasants'  shoulders. 

An  English  ship  stopped  at  Pitcairn  Island  and 
right  in  the  midst  of  surrounding  cannibalism  and 
squalor,  the  passengers  discovered  a  Christian  colony 
of  churches,  and  schools,  and  beautiful  homes,  and 
highest  style  of  religion  and  civilization.  For  fifty 
years  no  missionary  and  no  Christian  influence  had 
landed  there.  Why  this  oasis  of  light  amid  a  desert 
of  heathendom?  Sixty  years  before,  a  ship  had  met 


PAUL   IN   A   BASKET.  J\ 

disaster,  and  one  of  the  sailors,  unable  to  save  any- 
thing else,  went  to  his  trunk  and  took  out  a  Bible 
which  his  mother  had  placed  there,  and  swam  ashore, 
the  Bible  held  in  his  teeth.  The  Book  was  read  on 
all  sides,  until  the  rough  and  vicious  population  were 
evangelized,  and  a  church  was  started,  and  an  enlight- 
ened commonwealth  established,  and  the  world's  his- 
tory has  no  more  brilliant  page  than  that  which  tells 
of  the  transformation  of  a  nation  by  one  book.  It 
did  not  seem  of  much  importance  whether  the  sailor 
continued  to  hold  the  book  in  his  teeth  or  let  it  fall 
in  the  breakers,  but  upon  what  small  circumstance 
depended  what  mighty  results  ! 

There  are  no  insignificances  in  our  lives.  The 
minutest  thing  is  part  of  a  magnitude.  Infinity  is 
made  up  of  infinitesimals.  Great  things  an  aggrega- 
tion of  small  things.  Bethlehem  manger  pulling  on 
a  star  in  the  eastern  sky.  One  book  in  a  drenched 
sailor's  mouth  the  evangelization  of  a  multitude. 

o 

One  boat  of  papyrus  on  the  Nile  freighted  with  events 
for  all  ages.  The  fates  of  Christendom  in  a  basket 
let  down  from  a  window  on  the  wall.  What  you  do, 
do  well.  If  you  make  a  rope  make  it  strong  and 
true,  for  you  know  not  how  much  may  depend  on 
your  workmanship. 

If  you  fashion  a  boat  let  it  be  water-proof,  for  you 
know  not  who  may  sail  in  it.  If  you  put  a  Bible  in 
the  trunk  of  your  boy  as  he  goes  from  home,  let  it  be 
heard  in  your  prayers,  for  it  may  have  a  mission  as 
far-reaching  as  the  book  which  the  sailor  carried  in 
his  teeth  to  the  Pitcairn  beach.  The  plainest  man's 
life  is  an  island  between  two  eternities — eternity  past 
rippling  against  his  shoulders,  eternity  to  come 
touching  his  brow.  The  casual,  the  accidental,  that 


?2  PAUL   IN   A   BASKET. 

which  merely  happened  so  are  parts  of  a  great  plan, 
and  the  rope  that  lets  the  fugitive  apostle  from  the 
Damascus  wall  is  the  cable  that  holds  to  its  mooring 
the  ship  of  the  Church  in  the  northeast  storm  of  the 
centuries. 

Again,  notice  unrecognized  and  unrecorded  ser- 
vices. Who  spun  that  rope?  Who  tied  it  to  the 
basket  ?  Who  steadied  the  illustrious  preacher  as  he 
stepped  into  it?  Who  relaxed  not  a  muscle  of  the 
arm  or  dismissed  an  anxious  look  from  his  face  until 
the  basket  touched  the  ground  and  discharged  its 
magnificent  cargo?  Not  one  of  their  names  has 
come  to  us,  but  there  was  no  work  done  that  day  in 
Damascus  or  in  all  the  earth  compared  with  the  im- 
portance of  their  work.  What  if  they  had  in  the 
agitation  tied  a  knot  that  could  slip?  What  if  the 
sound  of  the  mob  at  the  door  had  led  them  to  say : 
"  Paul  must  take  care  of  himself,  and  we  will  take 
care  of  ourselves."  No,  no !  They  held  the  rope,  and 
in  doing  so  did  more  for  the  Christian  Church  than 
any  thousand  of  us  will  ever  accomplish.  But 
God  knows  and  has  made  eternal  record  of  their 
risky  undertaking.  And  they  know. 

How  exultant  they  must  have  felt  when  they  read 
his  letters  to  the  Romans,  to  the  Corinthians,  to  the 
Galatians,  to  the  Ephesians,  to  the  Philippians,  to  the 
Colossians,  to  the  Thessalonians,  to  Timothy,  to 
Titus,  to  Philemon,  to  the  Hebrews,  and  when  they 
heard  how  he  walked  out  of  prison  with  the  earth- 
quake unlocking  the  door  for  him,  and  took  command 
of  the  Alexandrian  corn-ship  when  the  sailors  were 
nearly  scared  to  death,  and  preached  a  sermon  that 
nearly  shook  Felix  off  his  judgment  seat.  I  hear  the 
men  and  women  who  helped  him  down  through  the 


PAUL   IN   A   BASKET.  73 

window  and  over  the  wall  talking  in  private  over  the 
matter,  and  saying :  "  How  glad  I  am  that  we 
effected  that  rescue !  In  coming  times  others  may 
get  the  glory  of  Paul's  work,  but  no  one  shall  rob  us 
of  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  we  held  the 
rope." 

There  are  said  to  be  about  sixty  thousand  ministers 
of  religion  in  this  country.  About  fifty  thousand  I 
warrant  came  from  early  homes  which  had  to  strug- 
gle for  the  necessaries  of  life.  The  sons  of  rich 
bankers  and  merchants  generally  become  bankers 
and  merchants.  The  most  of  those  who  become 
ministers  are  the  sons  of  those  who  had  terrific 
struggle  to  get  their  every-day  bread.  The  colleg- 
iate and  theological  education  of  that  son  took  every 
luxury  from  the  parental  table  for  eight  years.  The 
other  children  were  more  scantily  appareled. 

The  son  at  college  every  little  while  got  a  bundle 
from  home.  In  it  were  the  socks  that  mother  had 
knit,  sitting  up  late  at  night,  her  sight  not  as  good  as 
once  it  was.  And  there,  also,  were  some  delicacies 
from  the  sister's  hand  for  the  voracious  appetite  of  a 
hungry  student.  The  father  swung  the  heavy  cradle 
through  the  wheat,  the  sweat  rolling  from  his  chin 
bedewing  every  step  of  the  way,  and  then  sitting 
down  under  the  cherry-tree  at  noon  thinking  to  him- 
self :  "1  am  fearfully  tired,  but  it  will  pay  if  I  can 
once  see  that  boy  through  college,  and  if  I  can  know 
that  he  will  be  preaching  the  Gospel  after  I  am  dead." 
The  younger  children  want  to  know  why  they  can't 
have  this  and  that,  as  others  do,  and  the  mother  says : 
"Be  patient,  my  children,  until  your  brother  gradu- 
ates, and  then  you  shall  -have  more  luxuries,  but  we 
must  see  that  boy  through." 


74  PAUL   IN   A    BASKET. 

The  years  go  by,  and  the  son  has  been  ordained, 
and  is  preaching  the  glorious  Gospel,  and  a  great  re- 
vival conies,  and  souls  by  scores  and  hundreds  accept 
the  Gospel  from  the  lips  of  that  young  preacher,  and 
father  and  mother,  quite  old  no\v,  are  visiting  the 
son  at  the  village  parsonage,  and  at  the  close  of  a 
Sabbath  of  mighty  blessing,  father  and  mother  retire 
to  their  room,  the  son  lighting  the  way  and  asking 
them  if  he  can  do  anything  to  make  them  more  com- 
fortable, saying  if  they  want  anything  in  the  night 
just  to  knock  on  the  wall.  And  then,  all  alone, 
father  and  mother  talk  over  the  gracious  influences 
of  the  day,  and  say:  "Well,  if  was  worth  all  we 
went  through  to  educate  that  boy.  It  was  a  hard 
pull,  but  we  held  on  till  the  work  was  done.  The 
world  may  not  know  it,  but,  mother,  we  held  the 
rope,  didn't  we5"  And  the  voice,  tremulous  with 
joyful  emotion,  responds:  "Yes  father,  we  held  the 
rope.  I  feel  my  work  is  done.  Now,  Lord,  lettest 
thou  thy  servant  depart  in  peace,  for  mine  eyes  have 
seen  thy  salvation."  "Pshaw!"  says  the  father,  "I 
never  felt  so  much  like  living  in  my  life  as  now.  I 
want  to  see  what  that  fellow  is  going  on  to  do,  he 
has  begun  so  well." 

O  men  and  women,  vou  brag  sometimes  how  you 
have  fought  your  wav  in  the  world,  but  I  think  there 
have  been  helpful  influences  that  vou  have  never 
fully  acknowledged.  H:is  there  not  been  some  influ- 
ence in  your  earlv  or  present  home  that  the  world 
can  not  see?  Docs  there  not  reach  to  you  from 
among  the  New  England  hills,  or  from  Western  prai- 
rie, or  from  Southern  plantation,  or  from  English,  or 
Scottish,  or  Irish  home,  a  cord  of  influence  that  has 
kept  you  right  when  you  would  have  gone  astray, 


PAUL   IN   A   BASKET.  75 

but  which,  after  you  had  made  a  crooked  track,  re- 
called you  ?  The  rope  may  be  as  long  as  thirty  years, 
or  five  hundred  miles  long,  or  three  thousand  miles 
long,  but  hands  that  went  out  of  mortal  sight  long 
ago,  still  hold  the  rope. 

You  want  a  very  swift  horse,  and  you  need  to 
rowel  him  with  sharpest  spurs,  and  to  let  the  reins 
lie  loose  upon  the  neck,  and  to  give  a  shout  to  a  racer, 
if  you  are  going  to  ride  out  of  reach  of  your  mother's 
prayers.  Why,  a  ship  crossing  the  Atlantic  in  seven 
days  can't  sail  away  from  that !  A  sailor  finds  them 
on  the  lookout  as  he  takes  his  place,  and  finds  them 
on  the  mast  as  he  climbs  the  ratlines  to  disentangle  a 
rope  in  the  tempest,  and  finds  them  swinging  on  the 
hammock  when  he  turns  in.  Why  not  be  frank  and 
acknowledge  it — the  most  of  us  would  long  ago  have 
been  dashed  to  pieces  had  not  gracious  and  loving 
hands  steadily,  and  lovingly,  and  mightily  held  the 
rope. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  NEEDLE. 

History  has  told  the  story  of  the  crown ;  the  epic 
poet  has  sung  of  the  sword  ;  the  pastoral  poet,  with 
his  verses  full  of  the  redolence  of  ciover  tops  and 
a-rustle  with  the  silk  of  the  corn,  has  sung  the  praises 
of  the  plow.  I  sound  the  praises  of  the  needle. 
From  the  fig-leaf  robe  prepared  in  the  Garden  of 
Eden,  to  the  last  stitch  taken,  the  needle  has  wrought 
wonders  of  generosity,  kindness,  and  benefaction.  It 
adorned  the  girdle  of  the  high-priest;  it  fashioned 
the  curtains  in  the  ancient  tabernacle ;  it  cushioned 
the  chariots  of  King  Solomon  ;  it  provided  the  robes 
of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  in  high  places  and  in  low 
places,  by  the  fire  of  the  pioneer's  back  log,  and 
under  the  flash  of  the  chandelier — everywhere  it  has 
clothed  nakedness,  it  has  preached  the  Gospel,  it  has 
overcome  hosts  of  penury  and  want  with  the  war- 
cry  of  "Stitch  !  stitch  !  stitch  !" 

The  operatives  have  found  a  livelihood  by  it,  and 
through  it  the  mansions  of  the  employer  have  been 
constructed.  Amid  the  greatest  triumphs  in  all  ages 
and  lands  I  set  down  the  conquests  of  the  needle.  I 
admit  its  crimes.  I  admit  its  cruelties.  It  has  had 
more  martyrs  than  the  fire.  It  has  butchered  more 
souls  than  the  inquisition.  It  has  punctured  the  eye. 
It  has  pierced  the  side.  It  has  struck  weakness  into 
the  lungs.  It  has  sent  madness  into  the  brain.  It 

76 


THE   NEEDLE.  77 

has  filled  the  potter's  field.  It  has  pitched  whole 
armies  of  the  suffering  into  crime,  and  wretchedness, 
and  woe.  But  now  that  I  speak  of  Dorcas  and  her 
ministries  to  the  poor,  I  shall  relate  only  the  charities 
of  the  needle. 

This  woman  was  a  representative  of  all  those 
women  who  make  garments  for  the  destitute,  who 
knit  socks  for  the  barefooted,  who  prepare  bandages 
for  the  lacerated,  who  fix  up  boxes  of  clothing  for 
Western  missionaries,  who  go  into  the  asylums  of 
the  suffering  and  destitute,  bearing  that  Gospel  which 
is  sight  for  the  blind,  and  hearing  for  the  deaf,  and 
which  makes  the  lame  man  leap  like  a  hart,  and 
brings  the  dead  to  life,  immortal  health  bounding  in 
their  pulses. 

What  a  contrast  between  the  practical  benevolence 
of  this  woman  aiid  a  great  deal  of  the  charity  of  this 
day  !  This  woman  did  not  spend  her  time  idly  plan- 
ning how  the  poor  of  Joppa  were  to  be  relieved  ;  she 
took  her  needle  and  relieved  them.  She  was  not 
like  those  persons  who  sympathize  with  imaginary 
sorrows,  and  go  out  in  the  street  and  laugh  at  the  boy 
who  has  upset  his  basket  of  cold  victuals,  or  like  that 
charity  which  makes  a  rousing  speech  on  the  benevo- 
lent platform  and  goes  out  to  kick  the  beggar  from 
the  step,  crying:  "Hush  your  miserable  howling!" 
The  sufferers  of  the  world  want  not  so  much  theory 
as  practice;  not  so  much  tears  as  dollars;  not  so 
much  kind  wishes  as  loaves  of  bread  ;  not  so  much 
smiles  as  shoes ;  not  so  much  "God  bless  yous  !"  as 
jackets  and  frocks. 

I  will  put  one  earnest  Christian  man,  hard-working, 
against  5,000  mere  theorists  on  the  subject  of  charity. 
There  arc  a  great  many  who  have  fine  ideas  about 


78  THE   NEEDLE. 

church  architecture  who  never  in  their  life  helped  to 
build  a  church.  There  are  men  who  can  give  you 
the  history  of  Buddhism  and  Mohammedanism,  who 
never  sent  a  farthing  tor  their  evangelization.  There 
are  women  who  talk  beautifully  about  the  suffering 
of  the  world,  who  never  had  the  courage,  like  Dor- 
cas, to  take  the  needle  and  assault  it. 

I  am  glad  that  there  is  not  a  page  of  the  world's 
history  which  is  not  a  record  of  female  benevolence. 

God  says  to  all  lands  and  people :  "Come  now, 
and  hear  the  widow's  mite  rattle  down  into  the  poor- 
box."  The  Princess  of  Conti  sold  all  her  jewels  that 
she  might  help  the  famine-stricken.  Queen  Blanche, 
the  wife  of  Louis  VIII,  of  France,  hearing  that  there 
were  some  persons  unjustly  incarcerated  in  the 
prisons,  went  out  amid  the  rabble  and  took  a  stick 
and  struck  the  door  as  a  signal  that  they  might  all 
strike  it,  and  down  went  the  prison-door,  and  out 
came  the  prisoners.  Queen  Maud,  the  wife  of  Henry 
I.,  went  down  amid  the  poor  and  washed  their  sores 
and  administered  to  them  cordials.  Mrs.  Retson,  at 
Matagorda,  appeared  on  the  battlefield  while  the 
missiles  of  death  were  flying  around,  and  cared  for 
the  wounded. 

But  why  go  so  far  back?  Why  go  so  faraway? 
Is  there  a  man  or  woman  who  has  forgotten  the 
women  of  the  sanitary  and  Christian  commissions,  or 
the  fact  that  before  the  smoke  had  gone  up  from 
Gettysburg  and  South  Mountain,  the  women  of  the 
North  met  the  women  of  the  South  on  the  battlefield, 
forgetting  all  their  animosities  while  they  bound  up 
the  wounded  and  closed  up  the  eyes  of  the  slain? 
Have  you  forgotten  Dorcas,  the  benefactress ! 

There  are  a  great  many  who  go  out  of  life  and  are 


THE   NEEDLE.  79 

unmissed.  There  may  be  a  very  large  funeral ;  there 
may  be  a  great  many  carriages  and  a  plumed  hearse  ; 
there  may  be  high-sounding  eulogiums  ;  the  bell  may 
toll  at  the  cemetery  gate ;  there  may  be  a  very  fine 
marble  shaft  reared  over  the  resting-place ;  but  the 
whole  thing  may  be  a  falsehood  and  a  sham.  The 
Church  of  God  has  lost  nothing.  The  world  has  lost 
nothing.  It  is  only  a  nuisance  abated ;  it  is  only  a 
grumbler  ceasing  to  find  fault;  it  is  only  an  idler 
stopped  yawning ;  it  is  only  a  dissipated  fashionable 
parted  from  his  wine  cellar ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  no  useful  Christian  leaves  this  world  without 
being  missed.  The  Church  of  God  cries  out,  like  the 
prophet:  -'Howl,  fir-tree,  for  the  cedar  has  fallen  !" 
Widowhood  comes  and  shows  the  garments  which 
the  departed  had  made.  Orphans  are  lifted  up  to 
look  into  the  calm  face  of  the  sleeping  benefactress. 
Reclaimed  vagrancy  comes  and  kisses  the  cold  brow 
of  her  who  charmed  it  away  from  sin,  and  all  through 
the  streets  of  Joppa  there  is  mourning,  mourning 
because  Dorcas  is  dead. 

I  suppose  you  have  read  of  the  fact  that  when 
Josephine  was  carried  out  to  her  grave  there  were 
a  great  many  men  and  women  of  pomp,  and  pride, 
and  position,  that  went  out  after  her;  but  I  am  most 
affected  by  the  story  of  history,  that  on  that  day 
there  were  10,000  of  the  poor  of  France  who  followed 
her  coffin,  weeping  and  wailing  until  the  air  rang 
again,  because,  when  they  lost  Josephine  they  lost 
their  last  earthly  friend.  Oh,  who  would  not  rather 
have  such  obsequies  than  all  the  tears  that  were  ever 
poured  in  the  lachrymals  that  have  been  exhumed 
from  ancient  cities  ? 

There  may  be  no  mass  for  the  dead  ;  there  may  be 


80  THE   NEEDLE. 

no  costly  sarcophagus  ;  there  may  be  no  elaborate 
mausoleum  ;  but  in  the  damp  cellars  of  the  city,  and 
through  the  lonely  huts  of  the  mountain  glen,  there 
will  be  mourning,  mourning,  mourning,  because  Dor- 
cas is  dead.  "Blessed  are  the  dead  who  die  in  the 
Lord  ;  they  rest  from  their  labors,  and  their  works 
do  follow  them." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    SECRET    OUT. 

"Samuel  said,  What  meaneth  then  this  bleating  of  the  sheep  in 
mine  ears, and  the  lowing  of  the  oxen  which  I  hear?" — I.SAM.  15:  14. 

The  Amalekites  thought  that  they  had  conquered 
God,  and  that  He  would  never  execute  His  threats 
against  them.  They  had  murdered  the  Israelites  in 
battle  and  out  of  battle,  and  left  no  outrage  untried. 
They  thought  that  God  either  did  not  dare  to  punish 
them,  or  that  He  had  forgotten  so  to  do.  Let  us  see. 
Samuel,  the  Lord's  prophet,  tells  Saul  to  go  down 
and  destroy  the  Amalekites,  leaving1  not  one  of  them 
dive,  and  to  destroy  all  the  beasts  in  their  possession, 
ex  and  sheep,  camel  and  ass. 

The  Amalekites  and  Israelites  confront  each  other. 
The  trumpets  of  battle  are  blown,  peal  on  peal. 
Awful  scene,  that  ancient  battle.  But  huzza !  for  the 
Israelites.  More  than  two  hundred  thousand  men 
wave  their  plumes  and  clap  their  shields,  for  God  has 
given  them  the  victory.  Huzza  !  for  Israel. 

Yet  this  triumphant  army  is  soon  captured  and 
conquered  by  sheep  and  oxen.  God  told  Saul  to  go 
and  destroy  the  Amalekites,  and  to  destroy  all  the 
beasts  in  their  possession.  Saul  thought  he  knew 
better  than  the  Lord(  and  so  he  saves  Agag,  the  king 
of  the  Amalekites,  and  saves  some  of  the  finest  of  the 
sheep  and  the  oxen.  He  thinks  he  has  cheated  the 
prophet,  and  through  him  cheated  the  Lord,  and  he 

81  6 


82  THE   SECRET  OUT. 

is  driving1  these  sheep  and  oxen  on  toward  his  home 
lie  has  no  idea  that  Samuel,  the  prophet,  will  ever 
find  it.  out. 

Samuel  meets  him.  Saul  with  solemn  visage — for 
there  is  no  one  that  can  look  more  solemn  than  your 
genuine  hypocrite — Saul  says:  "I  have  fulfilled  the 
commandment  of  the  Lord."  Samuel  listens,  and  at 
that  moment  he  hears  the  noisy  drove  in  the  rear,  and 
he  says  to  Saul :  "  If  you  have  done  as  you  have 
said,  if  you  have  obeyed  the  Lord,  what  meaneth  the 
bleating  of  the  sheep  that  I  hear,  and  the  lowing  of 
the  oxen  in  mine  ear?"  One  would  have  thought 
that  Saul's  cheek  would  have  been  consumed  with 
blushes.  No.  He  says :  "  I  did  not  do  this ;  the 
army  did  it.  The  army  are  saving  these  sheep  and 
oxen  for  sacrifice."  Then  Samuel  slashes  Agag  to 
pieces,  and  in  Oriental  style  takes  hold  of  the  skirt  of 
his  coat,  and  rends  it  apart,  as  much  as  to  say,  "So 
shall  you  be  rent  from  your  crown,  so  shall  you  be 
rent  from  your  kingdom,  and  all  nations  shall  know 
that  Saul,  by  disobeying  God,  won  a  flock  of  sheep, 
but  lost  a  kingdom." 

God  will  expose  hypocrisy.  Saul  thought*  this 
whole  thing  had  been  hushed  up,  and  he  had  no  idea 
that  the  secret  of  his  disobedience  would  ever  come 
out,  and  at  the  most  inopportune  time  the  sheep 
bleat,  and  the  oxen  bellowed.  A  hypocrite  is  one 
who  professes  to  be  what  he  is  not,  or  to  do  that 
which  he  does  not.  Saul  was  a  type  of  a  large  class. 
A  hypocrite  in  our  time  is  a  man  who  looks  awfully 
solemn,  whines  in  his  prayer,  never  laughs  or  smiles, 
or,  if  he  should  be  caught  laughing  or  smiling,  after- 
ward is  apologetic,  as  though  he  had  committed  some 
great  sin.  The  first  time  he  has  a  chance,  he  prays 


THE  SECRET   OUT.  83 

twenty  minutes  in  a  prayer-meeting,  and  if  he  give  an 
exhortation,  it  is  with  an  air  that  seems  to  imply  that 
all  men  are  sinners  save  one,  his  modesty  forbidding 
that  he  should  state  who  that  one  is.  In  Churches  of 
Christ  all  over  the  land  are  ecclesiastical  Uriah  Heeps. 
When  the  fox  begins  to  pray  look  out  for  your 
chickens  !  The  genuine  impostor  in  religion  makes  a 
pride  of  his  misery.  The  genuine  Christian  finds 
religion  a  joy.  The  hypocrite  has  pride  in  his  being 
uncomfortable. 

Those  are  the  kind  of  men  that  damage  the  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Wolves  are  not  of  so  much  danger, 
save  when  they  are  in  sheep's  clothing.  Arnold  was 
of  more  peril  to  the  American  army  than  Cornwallis. 
and  his  host.  A  ship  may  outride  a  hundred  storms, 
and  yet  a  handful  of  worms  in  a  plank  may  sink  it  to 
the  bottom.  The  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  has  not  so 
much  fear  of  cyclones  of  persecution  as  it  has  of  the 
vermin  of  hypocrisy  sometimes  infesting  it. 

Now,  such  hypocrisy  will  be  exposed.  God  sees 
behind  the  curtain  as  well  as  before  the  curtain.  God 
sees  everything  inside  out.  All  their  solemn  looks 
will  not  save  them.  All  their  long  prayers  will 
not  save  them.  All  their  professions  of  religion 
will  not  save  them.  Their  real  character  will  be 
demonstrated,  and  at  the  most  unexpected  moment 
the  sheep  will  bleat  and  the  oxen  will  bellow. 

One  of  the  cruel  bishops  of  olden  time,  about  to 
put  one  of  the  martyrs  to  death,  began  by  saying; 
"  In  the  name  of  God,  amen."  The  martyr  said : 
"  Don't  say  '  in  the  name  of  God  ! ' '  And  yet  how 
many  cruel  and  mean  things  are  done  in  the  name  of 
religion  and  sanctity.  You  sometimes  see  ecclesi- 
astical courts  when  they  are  about  to  devour  some 


84  THE  SECRET  OUT. 

good  brother,  begin  by  being  tremendously  pious 
in  their  utterances,  the  venom  of  their  assault  corre- 
sponding with  the  heavenly  pathos  of  the  prelude. 
About  to  devour  him,  they  say  grace  before  the 
meal !  Just  at  the  time  when  you  expect  them  almost 
to  rise  in  translation,  and  are  beginning  to  think  that 
nothing  but  the  weight  of  their  boots  and  overcoats 
keep  them  down,  the  sheep  bleat  and  the  oxen  bellow. 
Ah !  my  friends,  pretend  to  be  no  more  than  that  you 
are.  If  you  have  the  grace  of  God,  profess  it ;  but 
profess  to  have  no  more  than  you  really  possess.  If 
you  have  none  of  it,  do  not  profess  to  have  it. 

History  tells  of  Ottocar  who  was  asked  to  kneel 
before  Randolphus  I.  Coming  into  the  presence  of 
the  king,  Ottocar  declined  to  kneel,  but  after  a  while 
he  compromised  the  matter  and  said:  "  I  will  kneel 
in  private  some  time  in  your  tent  where  no  one  sees 
me."  But  the  servant  of  the  king  arranged  a  rope 
by  which  he  could  instantly  let  the  tent  drop.  After 
a  while  Ottocar  came  into  the  tent  and  knelt  before 
Randolphus  in  worship.  The  king's  servant  drew 
the  cord  and  the  tent  dropped,  and  Ottocar  in  the 
presence  of  two  great  armies,  was  kneeling  before 
Randolphus.  Ah  !  my  friends,  if  you  pretend  that 
you  are  a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  at  the  same 
time  are  kneeling  to  the  world,  the  tent  has  already 
dropped,  and  all  the  armies  of  heaven  are  gazing  on 
the  hypocrisy.  The  universe  is  a  very  public  place, 
and  hypocrisy  always  comes  to  exposure. 

But  while  there  is  one  hypocrite  in  the  Church 
there  are  five  hundred  outside  of  it,  for  the  field  is 
larger.  People  sometimes  look  over  into  the  Church, 
and  they  find  here  and  there  a  hypocrite,  and  they 
denounce  the  Church  of  God.  You  have  more  on 


THE   SECRET   OUT.  85 

your  side  than  we  have  on  our  side.  Five  hundred 
to  one.  Men  who  in  your  presence  are  obsequious, 
while  at  the  same  time  they  are  angling  for  an  imper- 
fection. They  are  digging  for  a  bait.  Men  who  will 
be  in  your  presence  in  commercial  circles  as  genial 
as  a  summer  morn,  while  they  have  the  fierceness  of 
a  catamount  and  the  slyness  of  a  snake  and  the  spite 
of  a  devil.  But  the  gun  they  shoot  off  will  burst  in 
their  own  hands ;  the  lies  they  tell  crack  their  own 
teeth,  and  their  hypocrisy  will  be  demonstrated,  and 
at  the  most  unexpected  time  the  sheep  will  bleat  and 
the  oxen  will  bellow. 

It  is  very  natural  to  put  off  sin  on  other  people. 
Saul,  confronted  with  his  crime,  said  :  "  Oh,  it  wasn't 
me,  it  was  the  army  ;  they  saved  these  sheep  and 
oxen,  and  disobeyed  the  command  of  God.  It  wasn't 
me.  Oh,  no,  it  was  the  army."  Human  nature  the 
same  in  all  ages.  Adam  confronted  with  his  sin,  said : 
"  The  woman  tempted  me  and  I  did  eat."  And  she 
charged  it  upon  the  serpent,  and  if  the  serpent  could 
have  spoken  it  would  have  charged  it  upon  the  devil; 
when  the  simple  circumstance,  I  suppose,  was  that 
Adam  saw  Eve  eating  this  forbidden  fruit,  and  he 
begged  and  coaxed  until  he  got  a  piece  of  it !  Adam 
just  as  much  to  blame  as  Eve.  Ah  !  my  brother,  you 
cannot  put  off  your  sins  on  other  people.  Saul 
thought  he  could,  but  he  could  not. 

God  demanded  the  obliteration  of  all  of  the  Amal- 
ekites,  and  the  destruction  of  all  the  beasts  they 
owned,  and  Saul  saves  Agag,  the  King  of  the  Amal- 
ekites,  and  those  fine  sheep  and  oxen.  God  said, 
extermination.  Why,  do  you  suppose  that  if  we 
have  as  many  sins  as  there  were  men  in  the  army  of 
the  Amalekites,  God  is  going  to  let  us  keep  any  of 
them  ?  They  have  all  to  be  exterminated. 


86  THE   SECRET   OUT. 

Here  is  a  Christian  man  who  says:  "  I  have  an 
Amalekitish  sin  which' I  call  jealousy."  Down  with 
jealousy.  Here  is  a  Christian  man  who  savs  :  "I 
have  an  Amalekitish  sin  which  I  will  call  backbiting:." 
Down  with  backbiting.  A  Christian  says:  "  I  have 
an  Amalekitish  sin  which  is  an  appetite  for  strong 
drink."  Down  with  that  appetite.  Meanwhile,  out 
yonder,  there  is  a  sin  lifting  up  its  head.  What  is 
that?  It  is  Agag.  That  is  worldliness.  That  is  a 
pet  sin,  it  is  a  darling  sin  he  is  going  to  let  live.  No 
mercy  for  Agag.  You  cannot  keep  a  darling  sin. 
Extermination  ! 

Some  Presbyterians  call  it  "the  higher  life;"  some 
Methodists  call  it  "  perfection  ;"  I  do  not  care  what 
you  call  it;  but  without  holiness  no  man  shall  see  the 
Lord.  We  have  to  give  up  all  our  sins,  my  brothers 
and  sisters;  give  them  all  up.  No  mercy  for  Agag. 
Saul  kept,  I  suppose,  the  finest,  the  fattest  of  the 
sheep,  and  killed  the  meanest.  And  there  are  many 
Christians  who  kill  their  unpopular  sins  and  keep 
the  respectable  sins,  while  the  Lord  God  from  the 
heavens  thunders  extermination. 

A  mere  profession  of  religion,  if  it  be  not  backed 
up  by  right  behavior,  amounts  to  nothing,  and  worse 
than  nothing.  Saul  came  out  with  a  magnificent  pro- 
fession of  religion.  He  says  :  "  I  have  fulfilled  the 
commandments  of  the  Lord.  Just  look  at  me  !  See 
what  a  hero  1  have  been!"  Then  the  sheep  bleat  and 
the  oxen  bellowed.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  Church 
of  Christ  is  to  make  a  new  departure  in  the  direction 
of  straightout  honesty.  I  believe  the  time  will  come 
when  men,  instead  of  going  to  commercial  records  to 
see  whether  a  man  is  A  i — hearing  that  a  man  who 
proposes  a  bargain  is  a  member  of  the  Christian 


THE   SECRET   OUT.  87 

Ghurch,  a  professor  of  religion — the  merchant  will 
say  :  "  That  is  all  I  need." 

But  how  much  a  church  certificate  would  be  worth 
in  Wall  Street  to-day,  judge  ye!  It  seems  to  me  the 
Church  has  not  kept  up  with  the  world's  enterprise. 
It  used  to  take  a  good  while  to  make  a  sixpenny  nail. 
A  bar  would  be  thrust  into  the  hot  coals,  and  then 
the  bellows  would  blow,  and  then  the  bar  would  be 
brought  out  on  the  anvil,  and  they  would  pound  it 
and  smite  it  and  cut  it  and  cleave  it,  and  there  would 
be  the  nail.  Now,  a  bar  is  thrust  into  a  machine,  and 
instantly  there  is  a  whole  shower  of  nails  on  the 
floor  of  the  manufactory.  It  used  to  take  a  great 
while  to  thresh  wheat.  The  farmer  would  slowly  un- 
fasten the  band  from  the  sheaf,  then  he  would  shake 
out  the  sheaf  on  the  floor,  and  then  he  would  take 
the  slow  flail,  and  pound  out  the  wheat  from  the 
straw.  Now,  the  horses  start,  or  the  engine  begins 
to  hiss,  and  there  are  many  sheaves  instantly 
threshed.  The  printing-press  that  made  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  impressions  an  hour  was  considered 
wonderful.  Now,  tens  of  thousands  of  impressions 
are  made  in  the  same  length  of  time.  The  mail  was 
a  very  slow  institution.  Once  in  two  weeks  it  went 
from  London  to  Edinburgh.  Once  in  two  weeks 
it  went  from  New  York  to  Boston.  Now,  a  half 
dozen  times  a  day  you  have  to  run  to  get  out  of  the 
way,  or  you  will  be  run  over  by  the  wagons  that 
come  through  Nassau  Street,  with  whole  tons  of 
United  States  mail.  Over  eight  hundred  millions  of 
letters  and  papers  in  one  year  going  through  that 
mail.  Changes  in  jurisprudence.  Constitution  of  the 
State  ot  New  York  changed  in  1846.  Improvements 
in  the  criminal  code.  Improvements  in  the  civil 
code.  Law  of  1773  not  fit  for  1883. 


88  THE   SECRET   OUT. 

Now,  has  the  Church  of  God  kept  up  with  the 
movements  of  the  day  ?  with  art,  with  science,  with 
modern  travel.  "  Oh,"  says  some  one,  "  there  are  no 
new  principles  to  be  evolved  in  religion."  Ah !  I  ad- 
mit it.  There  are  no  new  principles  in  nature.  They 
are  new  to  us,  but  they  are  old  principles  brought 
out  into  demonstration  and  into  light.  The  law  of 
gravitation  did  not  wait  until  Isaac  Newton  was 
born.  There  was  just  as  much  electricity  in  the  sum- 
mer clouds  before  Benjamin  Franklin  began  to  play 
kite  with  the  thunderstorm,  as  afterward  ;  just  as 
much  power  in  steam  before  Robert  Fulton  was  born 
as  afterward.  The  carboniferous  and  Jurassic  strata 
of  the  earth  did  not  wait  to  be  laid  down  until  Hugh 
Miller  plunged  his  geological  crowbar.  They  are  old 
principles,  as  old  as  the  world,  but  brought  to  new 
demonstration.  So  I  say  in  regard  to  religion.  If  a 
man  tells  me  he  has  a  new  religion,  I  say,  "  I  have  no 
faith  in  it,  for  the  Bible  is  my  standard."  But  if  he 
comes  and  says  to  me,  "  I  have  a  new  application  of 
the  old  principle,"  1  say,  "  Hear,  hear,  hear !" 

Now  what  I  want  is  to  have  this  old  Gospel  wheel, 
this  grand  Gospel  wheel  which  has  turned  so  mag- 
nificently so  many  years,  to  have  another  band  put 
on  it,  the  band  connecting  it  with  every  shop,  with 
every  store,  with  every  banking  house,  with  every 
institution,  with  every  place  of  hard  work  —  the 
religion  of  Jesus  Christ  making  its  conquest  in  the 
direction  of  common  honesty,  so  that  when  a  man 
shall  say,  as  Saul  said, "  I  have  fulfilled  the  command- 
ment of  the  Lord,"  everybody  will  believe  him. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   EYE. 

The  imperial  organ  of  the  human  system  is  the  eye. 
The  surgeons,  the  doctors,  the  anatomists,  and  the 
physiologists  understand  much  of  the  glories  of  the 
two  great  lights  of  the  human  face  ;  but  the  vast  mul- 
titudes go  on  from  cradle  to  grave  without  any 
appreciation  oi  the  two  great  masterpieces  of  the  Lord 
God  Almighty.  If  God  had  lacked  anything  of  infi- 
nite wisdom  He  would  have  failed  in  creating  the 
human  eye.  We  wander  through  the  earth  trying  to 
see  wonderful  sights,  but  the  most  wonderful  sight 
that  we  ever  see  is  not  so  wonderful  as  the  instru- 
ments through  which  we  see  it. 

It  has  been  a  strange  thing  to  me  for  thirty  years 
that  some  scientist  with  enough  eloquence  and  mag- 
netism, did  not  go  through  the  country  with  illus- 
trated lecture  on  canvas  thirty  feet  square,  to  startle 
and  thrill  and  overwhelm  Christendom  with  the 
marvels  of  the  human  eye.  We  want  the  eye  taken 
from  all  its  technicalities,  and  some  one  who  shall  lay 
aside  all  talk  about  the  pterygomaxillary  fissures,  the 
sclerotica,  and  the  chiasma  of  the  optic  nerve,  and  in 
plain,  common  parlance  which  you  and  I  and  every- 
body can  understand,  present  the  subject.  We  have 
learned  men  who  have  been  telling  us  what  our 
origin  is  and  what  we  were.  Oh,  if  some  one  should 
come  forth  from  the  dissecting-table  and  from  the 

89 


90  THE    EYE. 

class  room  of  the  university  and  take  the  platform, 
and  asking  the  help  of  the  Creator,  demonstrate  the 
wonders  of  what  we  are. 

The  eyes  of  fish  and  reptiles  and  moles  and  bats  are 
very  simple  things  because  they  have  not  much  to 
do.  There  are  insects  with  a  hundred  eyes,  but  the 
hundred  eyes  have  less  faculty  than  the  two  human 
eyes.  The  black  beetle  swimming  the  summer  pond 
has  two  eyes  under  the  water  and  two  eyes  above 
the  water,  but  the  four  insectile  are  not  equal  to  the 
two  human.  Man  placed  at  the  head  of  all  living 
creatures  must  have  supreme  equipment,  while  the 
blind  fish  in  the  Mammoth  Cave  of  Kentucky  have 
only  an  undeveloped  organ  of  sight,  an  apology  for 
the  eye,  which,  if  through  some  crevice  of  the  moun- 
tain they  should  go  into  the  sunlight,  might  be 
developed  into  positive  eyesight. 

In  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  we  find  that  God 
without  any  consultation  created  the  light,  created 
the  trees,  created  the  fish,  created  the  fowl,  but  when 
He  was  about  to  create  man  He  called  a  convention 
of  divinity,  as  though  to  imply  that  all  the  powers  of 
Godhead  were  to  be  enlisted  in  the  achievement. 
"  Let  us  make  man."  Put  a  whole  ton  of  emphasis  on 
that  word  "  us."  "  Let  us  make  man."  And  if  God 
called  a  convention  of  divinity  to  create  man,  I  think 
the  two  great  questions  in  that  conference  were  how 
to  create  a  soul,  and  how  to  make  an  appropriate 
window  for  the  emperor  to  look  out  of. 

See  how  God  honored  the  eye  before  he  created  it. 
He  cried  until  chaos  was  irradiated  with  the  utter- 
ance :  "  Let  there  be  light  "  !  In  other  words,  before 
he  introduced  man  into  this  temple  of  the  world  He 
illumined  it,  prepared  it  for  the  eyesight.  And  so 


THE   EYE.  91 

alter  the  last  human  eye  has  been  destroyed  in  the 
final  demolition  of  the  world,  stars  are  to  fall  and  the 
sun  is  to  cease  its  shining,  and  the  moon  is  to  turn 
into  blood.  In  other  words,  after  the  human  eyes 
are  no  more  to  be  profited  by  their  shining,  the 
chandeliers  of  heaven  are  to  be  turned  out.  God  to 
educate  and  to  bless  and  to  help  the  human  eye,  set 
on  the  mantel  of  heaven  two  lamps — a  gold  lamp  and 
a  silver  lamp — the  one  for  the  day,  and  the  other  for 
the  night. 

To  show  how  God  honors  the  eye,  look  at  the  two 
halls  built  for  the  residence  of  the  eyes.  Seven  bones 
making  the  wall  for  each  eye,  the  seven  bones 
curiously  wrought  together.  Kingly  palace  of  ivory 
is  considered  rich,  but  the  halls  for  the  residence  of 
the  human  eyes  are  richer  by  so  much  as  human 
bone  is  more  sacred  than  elephantine  tusk.  See  how 
God  honored  the  eyes  when  He  made  a  roof  for  them, 
so  that  the-sweat  of  toil  should  not  smart  them,  and 
the  rain  dashing  against  the  forehead  might  rot  drip 
into  them  ;  the  eyebrows  not  bending  over  the  eye, 
but  reaching  to  the  right  and  to  the  left  so  that  the 
rain  and  the  sweat  should  be  compelled  to  drop  upon 
the  cheek  instead  of  falling  into  this  divinely  pro- 
tected human  eyesight. 

See  how  God  honored  the  eye  in  the  fact  presented 
by  anatomists  and  physiologists  that  there  are  800 
contrivances  in  every  eye.  For  window  shutters,  the 
eyelids  opening  and  closing  30,000  times  a  day.  The 
eyelashes  so  constructed  that  they  have  their  selec- 
tion as  to  what  shall  be  admitted,  saying  to  the  dust, 
"  Stay  out,"  and  saying  *o  the  light,  '•  Come  in."  For 
inside  curtain  the  iris,  or  pupil  of  the  eye,  according 
as  the  light  is  greater  or  less,  contracting  or  dilating. 


92  THE   EYE. 

The  eye  of  the  owl  is  blind  in  the  daytime,  the 
eyes  of  some  creatures  are  blind  at  night,  but  the 
human  eye  so  marvelously  constructed  it  can  see 
both  by  day  and  by  night. 

Many  of  the  other  creatures  of  God  can  move  the 
eye  only  from  side  to  side,  but  the  human  eye  so  mar- 
velousl  v  constructed,  has  one  muscle  to  lift  the  eye  and 
another  muscle  to  lower  the  eye,  and  another  muscle 
to  roll  it  to  the  right,  and  another  muscle  to  roll  it  to 
the  left,  and  another  muscle  passing  through  a  pulley 
to  turn  it  round  and  round — an  elaborate  gearing  of 
six  muscles  as  perfect  as  God  could  make  them. 

There  also  is  the  retina  gathering  the  rays  of  light 
and  passing  the  visual  impression  along  the  optic 
nerve  about  the  thickness  of  the  lamp  wick,  passing 
the  visual  impression  on  to  the  sensorium  and  on  into 
the  soul.  What  a  delicate  lens,  what  an  exquisite 
screen,  what  soft  cushions,  what  wonderful  chemistry 
of  the  human  eye.  The  eye  washed  by  a  slow  stream 
of  moisture,  whether  we  sleep  or  wake,  rolling  imper- 
ceptibly over  the  pebble  of  the  eye  and  emptying 
into  a  bone  of  the  nostril — a  contrivance  so  wonder- 
ful that  it  can  see  the  sun,  ninety-five  millions  of  miles 
away,  and  the  point  of  a  pin.  Telescope  and  micro- 
scope in  the  same  contrivance.  The  astronomer 
swings  and  moves  this  way  and  that,  and  adjusts  and 
readjusts  the  telescope  until  he  gets  it  to  the  right 
focus ;  the  microscopist  moves  this  way  and  that,  and 
adjusts  and  readjusts  the  magnifying  glass  until  it  is 
prepared  to  do  its  work,  but  the  human  eye  without 
a  touch  beholds  the  star  and  the  smallest  insect.  The 
traveler  among  the  Alps  with  one  glance  taking  in 
Mont  Blanc  and  the  face  of  his  watch,  to  see  whether 
he  has  time  to  climb  it.  Oh,  this  wonderful  camera 


THE   EYE.  93 

obscura  which  you  and  I  carry  about  with  us,  so  to-day 
we  can  take  in  this  audience,  so  from  the  top  of  Mount 
Washington  we  can  take  in  New  England,  so  at  night 
we  can  sweep  into  our  vision  the  constellations  from 
horizon  to  horizon.  So  delicate,  so  semi-infinite,  and 
,yet  the  light  coming  ninety-five  millions  of  miles  at 
the  rate  of  two  hundred  thousand  miles  a  second,  is 
obliged  to  halt  at  the  gate  of  the  eye,  waiting  until 
the  portcullis  be  lifted.  Something  hurled  ninety- 
five  millions  of  miles  and  striking  an  instrument 
which  has  not  the  agitation  of  even  winking  under 
the  power  of  the  stroke. 

There,  also,  is  the  merciful  arrangement  of  the  tear 
gland,  by  which  the  eye  is  washed,  and  through 
which  rolls  the  tide  which  brings  the  relief  that 
comes  in  tears  when  some  bereavement  or  great  loss 
strikes  us.  The  tear  not  an  augmentation  of  sorrow, 
but  the  breaking  up  of  the  Arctic  of  frozen  grief  in 
the  warm  Gulf  Stream  of  consolation.  Incapacity  to 
weep  is  madness  or  death.  Thank  God  for  the  tear 
glands,  and  that  the  crystal  gates  are  so  easily 
opened. 

Oh,  the  wonderful  hydraulic  apparatus  of  the 
human  eye.  Divinely  constructed  vision.  Two  light- 
houses at  the  harbor  of  the  immortal  soul,  under  the 
shining  of  which  the  world  sails  in  and  drops  anchor. 
What  an  anthem  of  praise  to  God  is  the  human  eye. 
The  tongue  is  speechless  and  a  clumsy  instrument  of 
expression  as  compared  with  it.  Have  you  not  seen 
it  flash  with  indignation,  or  kindle  with  enthusiasm, 
or  expand  with  devotion,  or  melt  with  sympathy,  or 
stare  with  fright,  or  leer  with  villainy,  or  droop  with 
sadness,  or  pale  with  envy,  or  fire  with  revenge,  or 
twinkle  with  mirth,  or  beam  with  love  ?  It  is  tragedy 


94  THE   EYE. 

and  comedy  and  pastoral  and  lyric  in  turn.  Have 
von  not  seen  its  uplifted  brow  of  surprise,  or  its 
frown  of  wrath,  or  its  contraction  of  pain?  If  the 
eye  say  one  thing  and  the  lips  say  another  thing,  you 
believe  the  eye  rather  than  the  lips.  The  eyes  of 
Archibald  Alexander  and  Charles  S.  Finney,  were 
the  mightiest  part  of  their  sermon.  George  White- 
Held  enthralled  great  assemblages  with  his  eyes, 
though  thev  were  crippled  with  strabismus.  Many 
a  military  chieftain  has,  with  a  look,  hurled  a  regi- 
ment t  >  victory  or  to  death.  Martin  Luther  turned 
his  great  eye  on  an  assassin  who  came  to  tnke  his  life, 
and  the  villain  fled.  Under  the  glance  of  the  human 
eye  the  tiger,  with  five  times  a  man's  strength,  snarls 
back  into  the  African  jungle. 

The  Earl  of  Bridgewater,  in  his  last  will  and  testa- 
ment bequeathed  $40,000  for  essavs  to  be  written  on 
the  power,  and  wisdom,  and  goodness  of  God,  as 
manifested  in  creation,  and  Sir  Charles  Bell,  the 
British  surgeon,  fresh  from  Corunna  and  Waterloo, 
where  he  had  been  tending  the  wounded  and  study- 
ing the  formation  of  the  human  body  amid  the  ampu- 
tating horrors  of  the  battlefield,  accepted  the 
invitation  to  write  one  of  those  Bridgewater  treatises, 
and  he  wrote  his  book  on  the  human  hand — a  book 
that  will  live  as  long  as  the  world  lives.  1  have  only 
hinted  at  the  splendors,  the  glories,  the  wonders,  the 
divine  revelations,  the  apocalypses  of  the  human  eye, 
and  1  stagger  back  from  the  awful  portals  of  the 
physiological  miracle  which  must  have  taxed  the 
ingenuity  of  a  God,  to  cry  out:  "He  that  formed 
the  eye,  shall  He  not  see  ?"  Shall  Herschel  not  know 
as  much  as  his  telescope?  Shall  Fraunhofer  not 
know  as  much  as  his  spectroscope?  Shall  Swam- 


THE   EYE.  95 

merdain  not  know  as  much  as  his  microscope  ?  Shall 
Dr.  Hookc  not  know  as  much  as  his  micrometer? 
Shall  the  thing  formed  know  more  than  its  maker? 
"He  that  formed  the  eye,  shall  He  not  see?" 

The  recoil  of  this  question  is  tremendous.  We 
stand  at  the  center  of  a  vast  circumference  of  obser- 
vation. No  privacy.  On  us,  eyes  of  cherubim,  eyes 
of  seraphim,  eyes  of  archangel,  eyes  of  God.  We 
may  not  be  able  to  see  the  inhabitants  of  other 
worlds,  but  perhaps  they  may  be  able  to  see  us.  We 
have  not  optical  instruments  strong  enough  to  descry 
them ;  perhaps  they  have  optical  instruments  strong 
enough  to  descry  us.  The  mole  can  not  see  the  eagle 
mid-air,  but  the  eagle  mid-sky  can  see  the  mole  mid- 
grass.  We  are  able  to  see  mountains  and  caverns  oi 
another  world ;  but  perhaps  the  inhabitants  of  other 
worlds  can  see  the  towers  of  our  cities,  the  flash  of 
our  seas,  the  marching  of  our  processions,  the  white 
robes  of  our  weddings,  the  black  scarfs  of  our 
obsequies.  It  passes  out  from  the  guess  into  the  posi- 
tive, when  we  are  told  in  the  Bible  that  the  inhab- 
itants of  other  worlds  do  come  or  convey  to  this. 
Are  they  not  all  ministering  spirits  sent  forth  to  min- 
ister to  those  who  shall  be  heirs  of  salvation?  Oh, 
the  eye  of  God,  so  full  of  pity,  so  full  of  power,  so 
full  of  love,  so  full  of  indignation,  so  full  of  compas- 
sion, so  full  of  mercy.  How  it  peers  through  the 
darkness.  How  it  outshines  the  day.  How  it  glares 
upon  the  offender.  How  it  beams  on  the  penitent 
soul.  Talk  about  the  human  eye  as  being  indescrib- 
ably wonderful — how  much  more  wonderful  the 
great,  searching,  overwhelming  eye  of  God.  All 
eternity  past  and  all  eternity  to  come  on  that  retina. 
The  eyes  with  which  we  look  into  each  other's  face 


96  THE    EYE. 

to-day  suggest  it.  It  stands  written  twice  on  your 
face  and  twice  on  mine,  unless  through  casualty  one 
or  both  have  been  obliterated.  "He  that  formed  the 
eye,  shall  He  not  see  ?"  Oh,  the  eye  of  God.  It 
sees  our  sorrows  to  assuage  them,  sees  our  perplex- 
ities to  disentangle  them,  sees  our  wants  to  sympa- 
thize with  them.  If  we  fight  Him  back,  the  eye  of 
an  antagonist.  If  we  ask  His  grace,  the  eye  of  an 
everlasting  friend. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE   EAR. 

Architecture  is  one  of  the  most  fascinating  arts, 
and  the  study  of  Egyptian,  Grecian,  Etruscan,  Ro- 
man, Byzantine,  Moorish,  Renaissance  styles  of 
building,  has  been  to  many  a  man  a  sublime  life- 
work.  Lincoln  and  York  Cathedrals,  St.  Paul's  and 
St.  Peter's;  and  Arch  of  Titus,  and  Theban  Temple, 
and  Alhambra,  and  Parthenon,  are  the  monuments  to 
the  genius  of  those  who  built  them.  But  more  won- 
derful than  any  arch  they  ever  lifted,  or  any  transept 
window  they  ever  illumined,  or  any  Corinthian  col- 
umn they  ever  crowned,  or  any  Gothic  cloister  the} 
ever  elaborated,  is  the  human  ear. 

Among  the  most  skillful  and  assiduous  physi 
ologists  of  our  time  have  been  those  who  have  giver 
their  time  to  the  examination  of  the  ear,  and  the 
studying  of  its  arches,  its  walls,  its  floor,  its  canals,  it! 
aqueducts,  its  galleries,  its  intricacies,  its  convulsions, 
its  divine  machinery,  and  yet,  it  will  take  another 
thousand  years  before  the  world  comes  to  any  ade- 
quate appreciation  of  what  God  did  when  Heplanned 
and  executed  the  infinite  and  overmastering  archi 
tecture  of  the  human  ear.  The  most  of  it  is  invisible 
and  the  microscope  breaks  down  in  the  attempt  at 
exploration.  The  cartilage  which  we  call  the  ear  is 
only  the  storm  door  of  the  great  temple  clear  down 
out  of  sight,  next  door  to  the  immortal  soul. 

97  7 


98  THE    EAR. 

Such  scientists  as  Hclmholtz,  and  Conte,  and  De 
Blainville,  and  Rank,  and  Buck,  have  attempted  to 
walk  the  Appian  Way  of  the  human  ear,  but  the  mys- 
terious pathway  has  never  been  fully  trodden  but  by 
two  feet — the  foot  of  sound  and  the  foot  of  God. 
Three  ears  on  each  side  the  head— the  external  ear, 
the  middle  ear,  the  internal  ear,  but  all  connected  by 
most  wonderful  telegraphy. 

The  external  ear  in  all  ages  adorned  by  precious 
stones  or  precious  metals.  The  Temple  of  Jerusalem, 
partly  built  by  the  contribution  of  earrings,  and 
Homer,  in  the  Iliad,  speaks  of  Hera,  the  three  bright 
drops,  her  glittering  gems  suspended  from  the  ear; 
and  many  of  the  adornments  of  our  day  are  only 
copies  of  ear-jewels  found  to-day  in  Pompeiian  mu- 
seum and  Etruscan  vase.  But  while  the  outer  ear 
may  be  adorned  by  human  art,  the  middle  and  the 
internal  ear  are  adorned  and  garnished  only  by  the 
hand  of  the  Lord  God  Almighty.  The  stroke  of  a 
key  of  this  organ  sets  the  air  vibrating,  and  the  ear 
catches  the  undulating  sound,  and  passes  it  on 
through  the  bonelets  of  the  middle  ear  to  the  in- 
ternal ear,  which  is  filled  with  liquid,  and  that  liquid 
again  vibrates  until  the  three  thousand  fibers  of  the 
human  brain  take  up  the  vibration,  and  roll  the  sound 
on  into  the  soul. 

The  hidden  machinery  of  the  ear,  by  physiologists 
called  by  the  names  of  things  familiar  to  us,  like  the 
hammer,  something  to  strike — like  the  anvil,  some- 
thing to  be  smitten — like  the  stirrup  of  the  saddle 
with  which  we  mount  the  steed — like  the  drum, 
beaten  in  the  march — like  the  harp  strings,  to  be 
swept  by  music.  Coiled  like  a  snail  shell,  by  which 
one  of  the  innermost  passages  of  the  ear  is  actually 


THE    EAR.  99 

called — like  a  stairway,  the  sound  to  ascend — like  a 
bent  tube  of  a  heating  apparatus,  taking  that  \vhich 
enters  round  and  round — like  a  labyrinth  with  won- 
derful passages  into  which  the  thought  enters  only  to 
be  lost  in  bewilderment.  The  middle  ear  filled  with 
air,  the  medium  of  the  sound  as  it  passes  to  the  in- 
ternal ear  filled  with  liquid — a  muscle  contracting 
when  the  noise  is  too  loud,  just  as  the  pupil  of  the 
eye  contracts  when  the  light  is  too  glaring.  The  ex- 
ternal ear  is  defended  by  wax,  which  with  its  bitter- 
ness, discourages  insectile  invasion.  The  internal 
car  embedded  in  what  is  by  far  the  hardest  bone  of 
the  human  system,  a  very  rock  of  strength  and 
defiance. 

The  ear,  so  strange  a  contrivance,  that  by  the  esti- 
mates of  one  scientist,  it  can  catch  the  sound  of 
seventy-three  thousand  seven  hundred  vibrations  in 
a  second.  The  outer  ear  taking  in  all  kinds  of  sound, 
whether  the  crash  of  an  avalanche,  or  the  hum  of  a 
bee.  The  sound  passing  to  the  inner  door  of  the 
outside  ear,  halts  until  another  mechanism,  divine 
mechanism,  passes  it  on  by  the  bonelets  of  the  middle 
ear,  and  coming  to  the  inner  door  of  the  second  ear, 
the  sound  has  no  power  to  come  further  until  another 
divine  mechanism  passes  it  on  through  into  the  inner 
ear,  and  then  the  sound  swims  the  liquid  until  it 
comes  to  the  rail-track  of  the  brain  branchlet,  and 
rolls  on  and  on  until  it  comes  to  sensation,  and  there 
the  curtain  drops,  and  a  hundred  gates  shut,  and  the 
voice  of  God  seems  to  say  to  all  human  inspection : 
"  Thus  far  and  no  farther." 

In  this  vestibule  of  the  palace  of  the  soul,  how 
many  kings  of  thought,  of  medicine,  of  physiology, 
have  done  penance  of  lifelong  study,  and  got  no 


ICO  THE    EAR. 

further  than  the  vestibule.  Mysterious  home  of  re- 
verberation and  echo.  Grand  Central  Depot  of 
sound.  Headquarters  to  which  there  come  quick 
dispatches,  part  the  way  by  cartilage,  part  the  way 
by  air,  part  the  way  by  bone,  part  the  way  by  water, 
part  the  way  by  nerve — the  slowest  dispatch  plung- 
ing into  the  ear  at  the  speed  of  one  thousand  and 
ninety  feet  a  second. 

Small  instrument  of  music  on  which  is  played  all 
the  music  you  ever  hear,  from  the  grandeurs  of  an 
August  thunderstorm  to  the  softest  breathings  of  a 
flute.  Small  instrument  of  music,  only  a  quarter  of 
an  inch  of  surface  and  the  thinness  of  one  two  hun- 
dred and  fiftieth  part  of  an  inch,  and  that  thinness 
divided  into  three  layers.  In  that  ear  musical  staff, 
lines,  spaces,  bar  and  rest.  A  bridge  leading  from 
the  outside  natural  world  to  the  inside  spiritual 
world ;  we  seeing  the  abutment  at  this  end  of  the 
bridge,  but  the  fog  of  an  uplifted  mystery  hiding  the 
abutment  at  the  other  end  of  the  bridge.  Whisper- 
ing gallery  of  the  soul.  The  human  voice  is  God's 
eulogy  to  the  ear.  That  voice  capable  of  producing 
seventeen  trillion,  five  hundred  and  ninety-two  bil- 
lion, one  hundred  and  eighty-six  million,  forty-four 
thousand,  four  hundred  and  fifteen  sounds,  and  all 
that  variety  made,  not  for  the  regalement  of  beast  or 
bird,  but  for  the  human  ear. 

Struggling  on  up  from  six  years  of  age  when  he 
was  left  fatherless,  Wagner  rose  from  the  obloquy  of 
the  world,  and  oft-times  all  nations  seemingly  against 
him,  until  he  gained  the  favor  of  a  king,  and  won  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  opera  houses  of  Europe  and 
America.  Struggling  all  the  way  on  to  seventy 
years  of  age,  to  conquer  the  world's  ear. 


THE    EAR.  IO3 

In  that  same  attempt  to  master  the  human  ear  and 
gain  supremacy  over  this  gate  of  the  immortal  soul, 
great  battles  were  fought  by  Mozart,  Gluck  and 
Weber,  and  by  Beethoven  and  Meyerbeer,  by  Ros- 
sini, and  by  all  the  roll  of  German  and  Italian  and 
French  composers,  some  of  them  in  the  battle  leaving 
their  blood  on  the  keynotes  and  the  musical  scores. 
Great  battle  fought  for  the  ear — fought  with  baton, 
with  organ  pipe,  with  trumpet,  with  cornet-a-piston, 
with  all  ivory  and  brazen  and  silver  and  golden 
weapons  of  the  orchestra ;  royal  theatre  and  cathe- 
dral and  academy  of  music  the  fortresses  of  the  con- 
test for  the  ear.  England  and  Egypt  fought  for  the 
supremacy  of  the  Suez  Canal,  and  the  Spartans  and 
the  Persians  fought  for  the  defile  at  Thermopylae,  but 
the  musicians  of  all  ages  have  fought  for  the  mastery 
of  the  auditory  canal  and  the  defile  of  the  immortal 
soul  and  the  Thermopylae  of  struggling  cadences. 

For  the  conquest  of  the  ear,  Haydn  struggled. on 
up  from  the  garret  where  he  had  neither  fire  nor 
food,  on  and  on  until  under  the  too  great  nervous 
strain  of  hearing  his  own  oratorio  of  the  "  Creation  " 
performed,  he  was  carried  out  to  die,  but  leaving  as 
his  legacy  to  the  world  118  symphonies,  163  pieces 
for  the  baritone,  1 5  masses,  5  oratorios,  42  German 
and  Italian  songs,  39  canons,  365  English  and  Scotch 
songs  with  accompaniment,  and  1536  pages  of  libretti. 
All  that  to  capture  the  gate  of  the  body  that  swings 
in  from  the  tympanum  to  the  snail  shell  lying  on  the 
beach  of  the  ocean  of  the  immortal  soul. 

To  conquer  the  ear,  Handel  struggled  on  from  the 
time  when  his  father  would  not  let  him  go  to  school 
lest  he  learn  the  gamut  and  become  a  musician,  and 
from  the  time  when  he  was  allowed  in  the  organ  loft 


IO4  THE    EAR. 

just  to  play  after  the  audience  had  left,  one  volun- 
tary, to  the  time  when  he  left  to  all  nations  his 
unparalleled  oratorios  of  "  Esther,"  "  Deborah," 
"Samson,"  "Jephthah,"  "Judas  Maccabeus,"  "  Israel 
in  Egypt,"  and  the  "  Messiah,"  the  soul  of  the  great 
German  composer  still  weeping  in  the  dead  march  of 
our  great  obsequies,  and  triumphing  in  the  raptures 
of  every  Easter  morn. 

To  conquer  the  ear  and  take  this  gate  of  the  im- 
mortal soul,  Schubert  composed  his  immortal  "Sere- 
nade," writing  the  staves  of  the  music  on  the  bill  of 
fare  in  a  restaurant,  and  went  on  until  he  could  leave 
as  a  legacy  to  the  world  over  a  thousand  magnificent 
compositions  in  music.  To  conquer  the  ear  and  take 
this  gate  of  the  soul's  castle,  Mozart  struggled  on 
through  poverty  until  he  came  to  a  pauper's  grave, 
and  one  chilly,  wet  afternoon  the  body  of  him  who 
gave  to  the  world  the  "  Requiem  "  and  the  "  G-minor 
Symphony  "  was  crunched  in  on  the  top  of  two  other 
paupers  into  a  grave  which  to  this  day  is  epitaphless. 

For  the  ear  everything  mellifluous,  from  the  birth 
hour  when  our  earth  was  wrapped  in  swaddling 
clothes  of  light  and  serenaded  by  other  worlds,  from 
the  time  when  Jubal  thrummed  the  first  harp  and 
pressed  a  key  of  the  first  organ,  down  to  the  music  of 
this  Sabbath  morn.  Yea,  for  the  ear  the  coming 
overtures  of  heaven,  for  whatever  other  part  of  the 
body  may  be  left  in  the  dust,  the  ear,  we  know,  is  to 
come  to  celestial  life ;  otherwise,  why  the  "  harpers 
harping  with  their  harps"?  For  the  ear,  carol  of 
lark  and  whistle  of  quail,  and  chirp  of  cricket,  and 
dash  of  cascade,  and  roar  of  tides  oceanic,  and 
doxology  of  worshipful  assembly  and  minstrelsy, 
cherubic,  seraphic,  and  archangelic.  For  the  ear  all 


THE    EAR.  105 

Pandean  pipes,  all  flutes,  all  clarionets,  all  hautboys, 
all  bassoons,  all  bells,  and  all  organs — Luzerne  and 
Westminster  Abbey,  and  Freyburg,  and  Berlin,  and 
all  the  organ  pipes  set  across  Christendom,  and  great 
Giant's  Causeway  for  the  monarchs  of  music  to  pass 
over.  For  the  ear,  all  chimes,  all  ticking  of  chro- 
nometers, all  anthems,  all  dirges,  all  glees,  all  choruses, 
all  lullabies,  all  orchestration. 

Oh,  the  ear,  the  God-honored  ear,  grooved  with 
divine  sculpture,  and  poised  with  divine  gracefulness, 
and  upholstered  with  curtains  of  divine  embroidery, 
and  corridored  by  divine  carpentry,  and  pillared  with 
divine  architecture,  and  chiseled  in  bone  of  divine 
masonry,  and  conquered  by  processions  of  divine 
marshaling.  The  ear!  A  perpetual  point  of  inter- 
rogation, asking  how,  a  perpetual  point  of  apostrophe 
appealing  to  God.  None  but  God  could  plan  it. 
None  but  God  could  build  it.  None  but  God  could 
work  it.  None  but  God  could  keep  it.  None  but  God 
could  understand  it.  None  but  God  could  explain  it. 
Oh,  the  wonders  of  the  human  ear.  How  surpass- 
ingly sacred  the  human  ear.  You  had  better  be 
careful  how  you  let  the  sound  of  blasphemy  or  un- 
cleanness  step  into  that  holy  of  holies.  The  Bible 
says  that  in  the  ancient  temple  the  priest  was  set 
apart  by  the  putting  of  the  blood  of  a  ram  on  the  tip 
of  the  ear,  the  right  ear  of  the  priest.  But,  my 
friends,  we  need  all  of  us  to  have  the  sacred  touch  of 
ordination  on  the  hanging  lobe  of  both  ears,  and  on 
the  arches  of  the  ears,  on  the  Eustachian  tube  of  the 
ear,  on  the  mastoid  cells  of  the  ear,  on  the  tympanic 
cavity  of  the  ear,  and  on  everything  from  the  outside 
rim  of  the  outside  ear  clear  in  to  the  point  where 
sound  steps  off  the  auditory  nerve  and  rolls  on  down 


Id6  THE   EAR. 

into  the  unfathomable  depths  of  the  immortal  soul. 
The  Bible  speaks  of  "dull  ears,"  and  of  "uncircum- 
ciscd  ears,"  and  of  "  itching  ears,"  and  of  "  rebellious 
ears,"  and  of  "open  ears,"  and  of  those  who  have  all 
the  organs  of  hearing  and  yet  who  seem  to  be  deaf, 
for  it  cries  to  them  :  "  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let 
him  hear." 

Oh,  yes,  my  friends,  we  have  been  looking  for  God 
too  far  away  instead  of  looking  for  Him  close  by  and 
in  our  own  organism.  We  go  up  into  the  conserva- 
tory and  look  through  the  telescope  and  see  God  in 
Jupiter,  and  God  in  Saturn,  and  God  in  Mars;  but 
we  could  see  more  of  Him  through  the  microscope 
of  an  aurist.  No  king  is  satisfied  with  only  one  resi- 
dence, and  in  France  it  has  been  St.  Cloud  and  Ver- 
sailles and  the  Tuilleries,  and  in  Great  Britain  it  has 
been  Windsor  and  Balmoral,  and  Osborne.  A  ruler 
does  not  always  prefer  the  larger.  The  King  of 
earth  and  heaven  may  have  larger  castles  and  greater 
palaces,  but  I  do  not  think  there  is  any  one  more 
curiously  wrought  than  the  human  ear.  The  heaven 
of  heavens  cannot  contain  Him,  and  yet  He  says  He 
finds  room  to  dwell  in  a  contrite  heart,  and  I  think, 
in  a  Christian  ear. 

We  have  been  looking  for  God  in  the  infinite — let 
us  look  for  Him  in  the  infinitesimal.  God  walking 
the  corridor  of  the  ear,  God  sitting  in  the  gallery  of 
the  human  ear,  God  speaking  along  the  auditory 
nerve  of  the  ear,  God  dwelling  in  the  ear  to  hear  that 
which  comes  from  the  outside,  and  so  near  the  brain 
and  the  soul  He  can  hear  all  that  transpires  there. 
The  Lord  of  hosts  encamping  under  the  curtains  of 
membrane.  Palace  of  the  Almighty  in  the  human 
ear.  The  rider  on  the  white  horse  of  the  Apocalypse 


THE   EAR.  ID/ 

thrusting  his  hand  into  the  loop  of  bone  which  the 
physiologist  has  been  pleased  to  call  the  stirrup  of 
the  ear. 

When  a  soul  prays,  God  does  not  sit  bolt  upright 
until  the  prayer  travels  immensity  and  climbs  to  His 
ear.  The  Bible  says  He  bends  clear  over.  In  more 
than  one  place  Isaiah  said  He  bowed  down  His  ear. 
In  more  than  one  place  the  Psalmist  said  He  inclined 
His  ear,  by  which  I  come  to  believe  that  God  puts 
His  ear  so  closely  down  to  your  lips  that  He  can 
hear  your  faintest  whisper.  It  is  not  God  away  off 
up  yonder ;  it  is  God  away  down  here,  close  up,  so 
close  that  when  you  pray  to  Him,  it  is  not  more  a 
whisper  than  a  kiss.  Ah !  yes,  He  hears  the  captive's 
sigh  and  the  plash  of  the  orphan's  tear,  and  the  dying 
syllables  of  the  shipwrecked  sailor  driven  on  the 
Skerries,  and  the  infant's  "  Now  I  lay  me  down  to 
sleep,"  as  distinctly  as  He  hears  the  fortissimo  of 
brazen  bands  in  the  Dusseldorf  festival,  as  easily  as 
He  hears  the  salvo  of  artillery  when  the  thirteen 
squares  of  English  troops  open  all  their  batteries  at 
once  at  Waterloo. 

The  phonograph  is  a  newly-invented  instrument 
which  holds  not  only  the  words  you  utter,  but  the 
very  tones  of  your  voice,  so  that  a  hundred  years 
from  now,  that  instrument  turned,  the  very  words 
you  now  utter  and  the  very  tone  of  your  voice  will 
be  reproduced.  Wonderful  phonograph.  As  of  our 
beloved  dead  we  keep  a  lock  of  hair,  or  picture  of 
the  features,  so  the  time  will  come  when  we  will  be 
able  to  keep  the  tones  of  their  voices  and  the  words 
they  uttered.  So  that,  if  now  dear  friends  should 
speak  into  the  phonograph  some  words  of  affection, 
and  then  they  should  be  taken  away  from  us,  years 


108  THE    EAR. 

from  now,  from  that  instrument  we  could  unroll  the 
words  they  uttered,  and  the  very  tones  of  their  voice. 
But  m'ore  wonderful  is  God's  power  to  hold,  to  re- 
tain. Ah!  what  delightful  encouragement  for  our 
prayers.  What  an  awful  fright  for  our  hard  speeches. 
What  assurance  of  warm-hearted  sympathy  for  all 
our  griefs. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

YOUR    PEDIGREE. 

This  question  of  heredity  is  a  mighty  question. 
The  longer  I  live  the  more  I  believe  in  blood — good 
blood,  bad  blood,  proud  blood,  humble  blood,  honest 
blood,  thieving  blood,  heroic  blood,  cowardly  blood. 
The  tendency  may  skip  a  generation  or  two,  but  it  is 
sure  to  come  out,  as  in  a  little  child  you  sometimes 
see  a  similarity  to  a  great-grandfather  whose  picture 
hangs  on  the  wall.  That  the  physical,  and  mental, 
and  moral  qualities  are  inheritable  is  patent  to  any 
one  who  keeps  his  eyes  open.  The  similarity  is  so 
striking  sometimes  as  to  be  amusing.  Great  families, 
regal  or  literary,  are  apt  to  have  the  characteristics 
all  down  through  the  generations,  and  what  is  more 
perceptible  in  such  families,  may  be  seen  on  a  smaller 
scale  in  all  families.  A  thousand  years  have  no 
power  to  obliterate  the  difference. 

The  large  lip  of  the  House  of  Austria  is  seen  in  all 
the  generations,  and  is  called  the  Hapsburg  lip.  The 
House  of  Stuart  always  means,  in  all  generations, 
cruelty,  and  bigotry,  and  sensuality.  Witness  Mary, 
Queen  of  Scots.  Witness  Charles  I.  and  Charles  II. 
Witness  James  I.  and  James  II.,  and  all  the  other 
scoundrels  of  that  imperial  line.  Scottish  blood 
means  persistence,  English  blood  means  reverence 
for  the  ancient,  Welsh  blood  means  religiosity,  Dan- 
ish blood  means  fondness  for  the  sea,  Indian  blood 

109 


110  YOUR    I'EDICKEE. 

means  roaming  disposition,  Celtic  blood  means  fer- 
vidly, Roman  blood  means  conquest. 

The  Jewish  facility  for  accumulation  you  may 
trace  clear  back  to  Abraham,  of  whom  the  Bible 
says,  "  He  was  rich  in  silver,  and  gold,  and  cattle," 
and  to  Isaac  and  Jacob,  who  had  the  same  charac- 
teristics. Some  families  are  characterized  by  long- 
evity, and  they  have  a  tenacity  of  life  positively 
Methuselish.  Others  art  characterized  by  Goliathan 
stature,  and  you  can  see  it  for  one  generation,  two 
generations,  five  generations,  in  all  the  generations. 
Vigorous  theology  runs  on  in  the  line  of  the  Alexan- 
ders. Tragedy  runs  on  in  the  family  of  the  Kembles. 
Literature  runs  on  in  the  line  of  the  Trollopes.  Phi- 
lanthropy runs  on  in  the  line  of  the  Wilberforces. 
Statesmanship  runs  on  in  the  line  of  the  Adamses. 
Henry  and  Catherine,  of  Navarre,  religious,  all  their 
family  religious.  The  celebrated  family  of  the  Casini, 
all  mathematicians.  The  celebrated  family  of  the 
Medici — grandfather,  son,  and  Catherine — all  remark- 
able for  keen  intellect.  The  celebrated  family  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus  all  warriors. 

This  law  of  heredity  asserts  itself  without  refer- 
ence to  social  or  political  condition,  for  you  some- 
times find  the  ignoble  in  high  place,  and  the  honorable 
in  obscure  place.  A  descendant  of  Edward  I.  a  toll- 
gatherer.  A  descendant  of  Edward  III.  a  door- 
keeper. A  descendant  of  the  Duke  of  Northumber- 
land a  trunk-maker.  Some  of  the  mightiest  families 
of  England  arc  extinct,  while  some  of  those  most 
honored  in  the  peerage  go  back  to  an  ancestry  of  hard 
knuckles  and  rough  exterior.  This  law  of  heredity  en- 
tirely independent  of  social  or  political  condition. 
Then  you  find  avarice,  and  jealousy,  and  sensuality, 


YOUR   PEDIGREE.  Ill 

and  fraud  having  full  swing  in  some  families.  The 
violent  temper  of  Frederick  William  is  the  inheritance 
of  Frederick  the  Great.  It  is  not  a  theory  to  be  set 
forth  by  worldly  philosophy  only,  but  by  divine 
authority.  Do  you  not  remember  how  the  Bible 
speaks  of  "  a  chosen  generation,"  of  "  the  generation 
of  the  righteous,"  of  "  the  generation  of  vipers,"  of 
an  "  untoward  generation,"  of  "  a  stubborn  genera- 
tion," of  "  the  iniquity  of  the  past  visited  upon  the 
children  unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation  "  ? 

"  Well,  says  some  one,  "  that  theory  discharges  me 
from  all  responsibility.  Born  of  sanctified  parents, 
we  are  bound  to  be  good,  and  we  cannot  help  our- 
selves. Born  of  unrighteous  parentage,  we  are 
bound  to  be  evil,  and  we  cannot  help  ourselves." 

As  much  as  if  you  should  say,  "The  centripeta' 
force  in  nature  has  a  tendency  to  bring  everything 
to  the  center,  and  therefore  all  things  come  to  the 
center.  The  centrifugal  force  in  nature  has  a  tend- 
ency to  throw  out  everything  to  the  periphery,  and 
therefore  everything  will  go  out  to  the  periphery." 
You  know  as  well  as  I  know  that  you  can  make  the 
centripetal  overcome  the  centrifugal,  and  you  can 
make  the  centrifugal  overcome  the  centripetal.  As 
when  there  is  a  mighty  tide  of  good  in  a  family  that 
may  be  overcome  by  determination  to  evil,  as  in  the 
case  of  Aaron  Burr,  the  libertine,  who  had  for  father, 
President  Burr,  the  consecrated ;  as  in  the  case  of 
Pierrepont  Edwards,  the  scourge  of  New  York  soci- 
ety seventy  years  ago,  who  had  a  Christian  ancestry  ; 
while  on  the  other  hand  some  of  the  best  men  and 
women  of  this  day  are  those  who  have  -come  of  an 
ancestry  of  which  it  would  not  be  courteous  to  speak 
in  their  presence. 


112  YOUR   PEDIGREE. 

If  you  have  come  of  a  Christian  ancestry,  then  you 
are  solemnly  bound  to  preserve  and  develop  the 
glorious  inheritance ;  or  if  you  have  come  of  a  de- 
praved ancestry,  then  it  is  your  duty  to  brace  your- 
self against  the  evil  tendency  by  all  prayer  and  Chris- 
tian determination,  and  you  are  to  find  out  what  are 
the  family  frailties,  and  in  arming  the  castle  put  the 
strongest  guard  at  the  weakest  gate.  With  these 
smooth  stones  from  the  brook  I  hope  to  strike  you, 
not  where  David  struck  Goliath,  in  the  head,  but 
where  Nathan  struck  David,  in  the  heart. 

First,  I  accost  all  those  who  are  descended  of  a 
Christian  ancestry.  I  do  not  ask  if  your  parents  were 
perfect.  There  are  no  perfect  people  now,  and  I  do 
not  suppose  there  were  any  perfect  people  then. 
Perhaps  there  was  sometimes  too  much  blood  in  their 
eye  when  they  chastised  you.  But  from  what  I 
know  of  you,  you  got  no  more  than  you  deserved, 
and  perhaps  a  little  more  chastisement  would  have 
been  salutary.  But  you  are  willing  to  acknowledge, 
I  think,  that  they  wanted  to  do  right.  From  what 
you  overheard  in  conversations,  and  from  what  you 
saw  at  the  family  altar  and  at  neighborhood  obse- 
quies, you  know  that  they  had  invited  God  into  their 
heart  and  life.  There  was  something  that  sustained 
those  old  people  supernaturally.  You  have  no  doubt 
about  their  destiny.  You  expect  if  you  ever  get  to 
heaven  to  meet  them  as  certainly  as  you  expect  to 
meet  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

That  early  association  has  been  a  charm  for  you. 
There  was  a  time  when  you  got  right  up  from  a 
house  of  iniquity  and  walked  out  into  the  fresh  air 
because  you  thought  your  mother  was  looking  at 
you.  You  have  never  been  very  happy  in  sin,  be- 


YOUR   PEDIGREE.  113 

cause  of  a  sweet  old  face  that  would  present  itself. 
Tremulous  voices  from  the  past  accosted  you  until 
they  were  seemingly  audible,  and  you  looked  around 
to  see  who  spoke.  There  was  an  estate  not  men- 
tioned in  the  last  will  and  testament,  a  vast  estate  ot 
prayer  and  holy  example,  and  Christian  entreaty,  and 
glorious  memory.  The  survivors  of  the  family 
gathered  to  hear  the  will  read,  and  this  was  to  be 
kept,  and  that  was  to  be  sold,  and  it  was  share  and 
share  alike.  But  there  was  an  unwritten  will  that 
read  something  like  this:  "In  the  name  of  God, 
Amen.  I,  being  of  sound  mind,  bequeath  to  my  chil- 
dren all  my  prayers  for  their  salvation  ;  I  bequeath 
to  them  all  the  results  of  a  lifetime's  toil ;  I  bequeath 
to  them  the  Christian  religion  which  has  been  so 
much  comfort  to  me,  and  I  hope  may  be  solace  for 
them ;  I  bequeath  to  them  a  hope  of  reunion  when 
the  partings  of  life  are  over;  share,  and  share  alike, 
may  they  have  in  eternal  riches.  I  bequeath  to  them 
the  wish  that  they  may  avoid  my  errors,  and  copy 
anything  that  may  have  been  worthy.  In  the  name 
of  the  God  who  made  me,  and  the  Christ  who  re- 
deemed me,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  who  sanctifies  me, 
I  make  this  my  last  will  and  testament.  Witness,  all 
ye  hosts  of  heaven.  Witness,  time,  witness,  eternity. 
Signed,  sealed,  and  delivered  in  this  our  dying  hour. 
Father  and  Mother." 

You  did  not  get  that  will  proved  at  the  Surrogate's 
office ;  but  I  take  it  out  to-day  and  I  read  it  to  you ; 
I  take  it  out  of  the  alcoves  of  your  heart ;  I  shake  the 
dust  off  of  it,  I  ask  you  will  you  accept  that  inheri- 
tance, or  will  you  break  the  will  ?  O  ye  of  Christian 
ancestry,  you  have  a  responsibility  vast  beyond  all 
measurement!  God  will  not  let  you  off  with  just 

8 


114  YOUR    PEDIGREE. 

being  as  good  as  ordinary  people  when  you  had  such 
extraordinary  advantage.  Ought  not  a  flower  planted 
in  a  hot-house  be  more  thrifty  than  a  flower  planted 
outside  in  the  storm  ?  Ought  not  a  factory  turned 
by  the  Housatonic  do  more  work  than  a  factory 
turned  by  a  thin  and  shallow  mountain  stream? 
Ought  not  you  of  great  early  opportunity  be  better 
than  those  who  had  a  cradle  unblessed? 

A  father  sets  his  son  up  in  business.  He  keeps  an 
account  of  all  of  the  expenditures.  So  much  for 
store  fixtures,  so  much  for  rent,  so  much  for  this,  so 
much  for  that,  and  all  the  items  aggregated,  and  the 
father  expects  the  son  to  give  an  account.  Your 
Heavenly  Father  charges  against  you  all  the  advant- 
ages of  a  pious  ancestry — so  many  prayers,  so  much 
Christian  example,  so  many  kind  entreaties — all  these 
gracious  influences  one  tremendous  aggregate,  and 
He  asks  you  for  an  account  of  it.  Ought  not  you  to 
be  better  than  those  who  had  no  such  advantages? 
Better  have  been  a  foundling  picked  up  off  the  city 
commons  than  with  such  magnificent  inheritance  of 
consecration  to  turn  out  indifferently. 

Ought  not  you,  my  brother,  to  be  better,  having 
had  Christian  nurture  than  that  man  who  can  truly 
say  this  morning:  "  The  first  word  I  remember  my 
father  speaking  to  me  was  an  oath  ;  the  first  time  I 
remember  my  father  taking  hold  of  me  was  in  wrath  ; 
I  never  saw  a  Bible  till  I  was  ten  years  of  age,  and 
then  I  was  told  it  was  a  pack  of  lies.  The  first 
twenty  years  of  my  life  I  was  associated  with  the 
vicious.  I  seemed  to  be  walled  in  by  sin  and  death." 
Now,  my  brother,  ought  you  not — I  leave  it  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fairness  with  you — ought  you  not  to  be  far  bet- 
ter than  those  who  had  no  early  Christian  influence? 


YOUR   PEDIGREE.  115 

Standing  as  you  do  between  the  generation  that  is 
past  and  the  generation  that  is  to  come,  are  you 
going  to  pass  the  blessing  on,  or  are  you  going  to 
have  your  life  the  gulf  in  which  that  tide  of  blessing 
shall  drop  out  of  sight  forever  ?  You  are  the  trustee 
of  piety  in  that  ancestral  line,  and  are  you  going  to 
augment  or  squander  that  solemn  trust  fund?  are 
you  going  to  disinherit  your  sons  and  daughters  of 
the  heirloom  which  your  parents  left  you?  Ah  !  that 
cannot  be  possible,  that  cannot  be  possible  that  you 
are  going  to  take  such  a  position  as  that.  You  are 
very  careful  about  the  life  insurances,  and  careful 
about  the  deeds,  and  careful  about  the  mortgages, 
and  careful  about  the  title  of  your  property,  because 
when  you  step  off  the  stage  you  want  your  children 
to  get  it  all.  Are  you  making  no  provision  that  they 
shall  get  grandfather  and  grandmother's  religion? 
Oh,  what  a  last  will  and  testament  you  are  making, 
my  brother !  "  In  the  name  of  God,  Amen.  I,  being 
of  sound  mind,  make  this  my  last  will  and  testament. 
I  bequeath  to  my  children  all  the  money  I  ever  made, 
and  all  the  houses  I  own ;  but  I  disinherit  them,  I  rob 
them  of  the  ancestral  grace  and  the  Christian  influ- 
ence that  I  inherited.  I  have  squandered  that  on  my 
own  worldliness.  Share  and  share  alike  must  they  in 
the  misfortune  and  the  everlasting  outrage.  Signed, 
sealed,  and  delivered  in  the  presence  of  God  and 
men  and  angels  and  devils,  and  all  the  generations  of 
earth  and  heaven  and  hell." 

O  ye  highly  favored  ancestry,  wake  up  this  morn- 
ing to  a  sense  of  your  opportunity  and  your  respon- 
sibility. I  think  there  must  be  an  old  cradle,  or  a 
fragment  of  a  cradle  somewhere  that  could  tell 
a  story  of  midnight  supplication  in  your  behalf. 


Il6  YOUR   PEDIGREE. 

Where  is  the  old  rocking  chair  in  which  you  were 
sung  to  sleep  with  the  holy  nursery  rhyme?  Where 
is  the  old  clock  that  ticked  away  the  moments  of  that 
sickness  on  that  awful  night  when  there  were  but 
three  of  you  awake — you  and  God  and  mother  ?  Is 
there  not  an  old  staff  in  some  closet?  is  there  not  an 
old  family  Bible  on  some  shelf  that  seems  to  address 
you,  saying :  "  My  son,  my  daughter,  how  can  you 
reject  that  God  who  so  kindly  dealt  with  us  all  our 
lives,  and  to  whom  we  commend  you  in  our  prayers, 
living  and  dying  !  By  the  memory  of  the  old  home- 
stead, by  the  family  altar,  by  our  dying  pillow,  by 
the  graves  in  which  our  bodies  sleep  while  our  spirits 
hover,  we  beg  you  to  turn  over  a  new  leaf." 

But  1  turn  for  a  moment  to  those  who  had  evil 
parentage,  and  I  want  to  tell  you  that  the  highest 
thrones  in  heaven,  and  the  mightiest  triumphs,  and 
the  brightest  crowns,  will  be  for  those  who  had  evil 
parentage,  but  who  by  the  grace  of  God  conquered. 
As  useful,  as  splendid  a  gentleman  as  I  know  of  to- 
day, had  for  father  a  man  who  died  blaspheming 
God,  until  the  neighbors  had  to  put  their  fingers  in 
their  ears  to  shut  out  the  horror.  One  of  the  most 
consecrated  and  useful  Christian  ministers  of  to-day, 
was  born  of  a  drunken  horse-jockey.  Tide  of  evil 
tremendous  in  some  families.  It  is  like  Niagara 
Rapids,  and  yet  men  have  clung  to  a  rock,  and  been 
rescued. 

There  is  a  family  in  New  York  whose  wealth  has 
rolled  up  into  many  millions,  that  was  founded  by  a 
man  who,  after  he  had  vast  estate,  sent  back  a  paper 
of  tacks  because  they  were  two  cents  more  than  he 
expected.  Grip,  and  grind,  and  gouge  in  the  fourth 
generation — I  suppose  it  will  be  grip,  and  grind,  and 


YOUR   PEDIGREE.  117 

gouge  in  the  twentieth  generation.  The  thirst  for  in- 
toxicants has  burned  down  through  the  arteries  of  a 
hundred  and  fifty  years.  Pugnacity  or  combative- 
ness  characterize  other  families.  Sometimes  one 
form  of  evil,  sometimes  another  form  of  evil.  But  it 
may  be  resisted,  it  has  been  resisted.  If  the  family 
frailty  be  avarice,  cultivate  unselfishness  and  charity, 
and  teach  your  children  never  to  eat  an  apple  with- 
out offering  somebody  else  half  of  it.  Is  the  family 
frailty  combativeness,  keep  out  of  the  company  of 
quick-tempered  people,  and  never  answer  an  imper- 
tinent question  until  you  have  -counted  a  hundred 
both  ways,  and  after  you  have  written  an  angry  let- 
ter keep  it  a  week  before  you  send  it,  and  then  burn 
it  up !  Is  the  family  frailty  timidity  and  cowardice, 
cultivate  backbone,  read  the  biography  of  brave  men 
like  Joshua  or  Paul,  and  see  if  you  cannot  get  a  little 
iron  in  your  blood.  Find  out  what  the  family  frailty 
is,  and  set  body,  mind,  and  soul  in  battle  array. 

I  think  the  genealogical  table  was  put  in  the  first 
chapter  of  the  New  Testament,  not  only  to  show  our 
Lord's  pedigree,  but  to  show  that  a  man  may  rise  up 
in  an  ancestral  line,  and  beat  back  successfully  all  the 
influences  of  bad  heredity.  See  in  that  genealogical 
table  that  good  King  Asa  came  of  vile  King  Abia. 
See  in  that  genealogical  table  that  Joseph  and  Mary, 
and  the  most  illustrious  Being  that  ever  touched  our 
world,  or  ever  will  touch  it,  had  in  their  ancestral 
line  scandalous  Rheoboam,  and  Thamar,  and  Bath- 
sheba.  If  this  world  is  ever  to  be  Edenized — and  it 
will  be — all  the  infected  families  of  the  earth  are  to 
be  regenerated,  and  there  will  some  one  arise  in  each 
family  line,  and  open  a  new  genealogical  table. 
There  will  be  some  Joseph  in  the  line  to  reverse  the 


Il8  YOUR   PEDIGREE. 

evil  influence  of  Rheoboam,  and  there  will  be  some 
Mary  in  the  line  to  reverse  the  evil  influence  of 
Bathsheba.  Perhaps  the  star  of  hope  may  point 
down  to  your  manger.  Perhaps  you  are  to  be  the 
hero  or  the  heroine  that  is  to  put  down  the  brakes, 
and  stop  that  long  train  of  genealogical  tendencies, 
and  switch  it  off  on  another  track  from  that  on  which 
it  has  been  running  for  a  century.  You  do  that,  and 
I  will  promise  you  as  fine  a  palace  as  the  architects 
of  heaven  can  build,  the  archway  inscribed  with  the 
words,  "  More  than  conqueror.'  ' 

But  whatever  your  heredity,  let  me  say,  you  may 
be  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Lord  God  Almighty. 
Estranged  children  from  the  homestead  come  back 
through  the  open  gate  of  adoption.  There  is  royal 
blood  in  our  veins.  There  are  crowns  on  our 
escutcheon.  Our  Father  is  King.  Our  Brother  is 
King.  We  may  be  kings  and  queens  unto  God  for- 
ever. Come  and  sit  down  on  the  ivory  bench  of  the 
palace.  Come  and  wash  in  the  fountains  that  fall 
into  the  basins  of  crystal  and  alabaster.  Come  and 
loak  out  of  the  upholstered  window  upon  gardens  of 
azalea  and  amaranth.  Hear  the  full  burst  of  the 
orchestra  while  you  banquet  with  potentates  and 
victors.  Oh,  when  the  text  sweeps  backward,  let  it 
not  stop  at  the  cradle  that  rocked  your  infancy,  but 
at  the  cradle  that  rocked  the  first  world,  and  when 
the  text  sweeps  forward,  let  it  not  stop  at  your  grave, 
but  at  the  throne  on  whfch  you  may  reign  forever 
and  ever.  "  Whose  son  art  thou,  thou  young  man?  " 
Son  of  God!  Heir  of  mortality?  Take  your  in- 
heritance ? 


HOME. 

[After  R.  Beyschlae.] 


CHAPTER   X. 

HOME. 

There  are  a  great  many  people  longing  for  some 
grand  sphere  in  which  to  serve  God.  They  admire 
Luther  at  the  Diet  of  Worms,  and  only  wish  that 
they  had  some  such  great  opportunity  in  which  to 
display  their  Christian  prowess.  They  admire  Paul 
making  Felix  tremble,  and  they  only  wish  that  they 
had  some  such  grand  occasion  in  which  to  preach 
righteousness,  temperance,  and  judgment  to  come. 
All  they  want  is  only  an  opportunity  to  exhibit  their 
Christian  heroism.  Now,  the  Apostle  comes  to  us  and 
he  practically  says :  "  I  will  show  you  a  place  where 
you  can  exhibit  all  that  is  grand  and  beautiful  and 
glorious  in  Christian  character,  and  that  is,  the  do- 
mestic circle."  Let  them  learn  first  to  show  piety  at 
home. 

If  one  is  not  faithful  in  an  insignificant  sphere,  he 
will  not  be  faithful  in  a  resounding  sphere.  If  Peter 
will  not  help  the  cripple  at  the  gate  of  the  temple  he 
will  never  be  able  to  preach  three  thousand  into  the 
kingdom  at  the  Pentecost.  If  Paul  will  not  take  pains 
to  instruct  in  the  way  of  salvation  the  jailor  of  the 
Philippian  dungeon,  he  will  never  make  Felix  trem- 
ble. He  who  is  not  faithful  in  a  skirmish  would  not 
be  faithful  in  an  Armageddon. 

The  fact  is,  we  are  all  placed  in  just  the  position  in 
which  we  can  most  grandly  serve  God ;  and  we 


122  HOME. 

ought  not  to  be  chiefly  thoughtful  about  some  sphere 
of  usefulness  which  we  may  after  awhile  gain,  but 
the  all-absorbing  question  with  you  and  with  me 
ought  to  be  :  "  Lord,  what  wilt  Thou  have  me  now 
and  here  to  do?" 

Home.  Ask  ten  different  men  the  meaning  of  that 
word  and  they  will  give  you  ten  different  definitions. 
To  one  it  means  love  at  the  hearth,  it  means  plenty 
at  the  table,  industry  at  the  workstand,  intelligence  at 
the  books,  devotion  at  the  altar.  In  that  household 
Discord  never  sounds  its  warwhoop  and  Deception 
never  tricks  with  its  false  face.  To  him  it  means  a 
greeting  at  the  door  and  a  smile  at  the  chair,  Peace 
hovering  like  wings,  Joy  clapping  its  hands  with 
laughter.  Life  a  tranquil  lake.  Pillowed  on  the  rip- 
ples sleep  the  shadows.. 

Ask  another  man  what  home  is,  and  he  will  tell  you 
it  is  Want  looking  out  of  a  cheerless  fire-grate,  needy 
hunger  in  an  empty  bread-tray.  The  damp  air  shiv- 
ering with  curses.  No  Bible  on  the  shelf.  Children 
robbers  and  murderers  in  embryo.  Obscene  songs 
their  lullaby.  Every  face  a  picture  of  ruin.  Want 
in  the  background  and  sin  staring  from  the  front.  No 
Sabbath  wave  rolling  over  that  doorsill.  Vestibule  of 
the  pit.  Shadow  of  infernal  walls.  Furnace  for  forg- 
ing everlasting  chains.  Faggots  for  an  unending  fu- 
neral pile.  Awful  word.  It  is  spelled  with  curses,  it 
weeps  with  ruin,  it  chokes  with  woe,  it  sweats  with 
the  death  agony  of  despair.  The  word  "  home  "  in 
the  one  case  means  everything  bright.  The  word 
"  home  "  in  the  other  case  means  everything  terrific. 

Home  is  a  powerful  test  of  character.  The  dispo- 
sition in  public  may  be  to  gay  costume,  while  in  pri- 
vate it  is  to  dishabille.  As  play  actors  may  appear  in 


HOME.  123 

one  way  on  the  stage  and  may  appear  in  another  way 
behind  the  scenes,  so  private  character  may  be  very 
different  from  public  character.  Private  character  is 
often  public  character  turned  inside  out.  A  man 
may  receive  you  into  his  parlor  as  though  he  were  a 
distillation  of  smiles,  and  yet  his  heart  may  be  a 
swamp  of  nettles.  There  are  business  men  who  all 
day  long  are  mild  and  courteous  and  genial  and  good- 
natured  in  commercial  life,  damming  back  their  irri- 
tability and  their  petulance  and  their  discontent,  but 
at  nightfall  the  dam  breaks,  and  scolding  pours  forth 
in  floods  and  freshets. 

Reputation  is  only  the  shadow  of  character,  and  a 
very  small  house  sometimes  will  cast  a  very  long 
shadow.  The  lips  may  seem  to  drop  with  myrrh 
and  cassia,  and  the  disposition  to  be  as  bright  and 
warm  as  a  sheaf  of  sunbeams,  and  yet  they  may  only 
be  a  magnificent  show  window,  but  a  wretched  stock 
of  goods.  There  is  many  a  man  who  is  affable  in 
public  life  and  amid  commercial  spheres,  who,  in  a 
cowardly  way,  takes  his  anger  and  his  petulance 
home  and  drops  them  on  the  domestic  circle. 

The  reason  men  do  not  display  their  bad  temper  in 
public  is  because  they  do  not  want  to  be  knocked 
down.  There  are  men  who  hide  their  petulance  and 
their  irritability  just  for  the  same  reason  that  they  do 
not  let  their  notes  go  to  protest;  it  does  not  pay.  Or, 
for  the  same  reason  that  they  do  not  want  a  man  in 
their  stock  company  to  sell  his  stock  at  less  than  the 
right  price  lest  it  depreciate  the  value.  As  at  sunset 
sometimes  the  wind  rises,  so  after  a  sunshiny  day 
there  may  be  a  tempestuous  night.  There  are  peo- 
ple who  in  public  act  the  philanthropist,  who  at  home 
act  the  Nero,  with  respect  to  their  slippers  and  their 
gown. 


124  HOME. 

Audubon,  the  great  ornithologist,  with  gun  and 
pencil,  went  through  the  forests  of  America  to  bring 
down  and  to  sketch  the  beautiful  birds,  and  after 
years  of  toil  and  exposure  completed  his  manuscript 
and  put  it  in  a  trunk  in  Philadelphia,  and  went  off  for 
a  few  days  of  recreation  and  rest,  and  came  back  and 
found  that  the  rats  had  utterly  destroyed  the  manu- 
script ;  but  without  any  discomposure  and  without 
any  fret  or  bad  temper,  he  again  picked  up  his  gun 
and  his  pencil,  and  visited  again  all  the  great  forests 
of  America  and  reproduced  his  immortal  work.  And 
yet  there  are  people  with  the  ten-thousandth  part  of 
that  loss  who  are  utterly  irreconcilable,  who,  at  the 
loss  of  a  pencil  or  an  article  of  raiment,  will  blow  as 
long  and  loud  and  sharp  as  a  northeast  storm. 

Now,  that  man  who  is  affable  in  public  and  who  is 
irritable  in  private  is  making  a  fraudulent  and  over- 
issue of  stock,  and  he  is  as  bad  as  a  bank  that  might 
have  four  or  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  of  bills  in 
circulation  and  no  specie  in  the  vault.  Let  us  learn 
to  show  piety  at  home.  If  we  have  it  not  there,  we 
have  it  not  anywhere.  If  we  have  not  genuine  grace 
in  the  family  circle,  all  our  outward  and  public  plaus- 
ibility merely  springs  from  a  fear  of  the  world,  or 
from  the  slimy,  putrid  pool  of  our  own  selfishness.  I 
tell  you  the  home  is  a  mighty  test  of  character. 
^tVhat  you  arc  at  home  you  are  everywhere,  whether 
y:>u  demonstrate  it  or  not. 

Again,  home  is  a  refuge.  Life  is  the  United  States 
army  on  the  national  road  to  Mexico,  a  long  march 
with  ever  and  anon  a  skirmish  and  a  battle.  At 
eventide  we  pitch  our  tent  and  stack  the  arms,  we 
hang  up  the  war  cap,  and,  our  head  on  the  knapsack, 
we  sleep  until  the  morning  bugle  calls  us  to  march 


HOME.  125 

to  the  action.  How  pleasant  it  is  to  rehearse  the  vic- 
tories and  the  surprises  and  the  attacks  of  the  day, 
seated  by  the  still  camp-fire  of  the  home  circle. 

Yet  life  is  a  stormy  sea.  With  shivered  masts  and 
torn  sails,  and  hulk  aleak,  we  put  in  at  the  harbor  of 
home.  Blessed  harbor !  There  we  go  for  repairs  in 
the  dry  dock.  The  candle  in  the  window  is  to  the 
toiling  man  the  lighthouse  guiding  him  into  port. 
Children  go  forth  to  meet  their  fathers  as  pilots  at 
the  "Narrows"  take  the  hand  of  ships.  The  door-sill 
of  the  home  is  the  wharf  where  heavy  life  is  unladen. 

There  is  the  place  where  we  may  talk  of  what  we 
have  done  without  being  charged  with  self-adulation. 
There  is  the  place  where  we  may  lounge  without 
being  thought  ungraceful.  There  is  the  place  where 
we  may  express  gratification  without  being  thought 
silly.  There  is  the  place  where  we  may  forget  our 
annoyances,  and  exasperations,  and  troubles.  For- 
lorn earth,  pilgrim,  no  home?  Then  die.  That  is 
better.  The  grave  is  brighter,  and  grander,  and 
more  glorious  than  this  world  with  no  tent  from 
marching,  with  no  harbor  from  the  storm,  with  no 
place  of  rest  from  the  scene  of  greed  and  gouge,  and 
loss  and  gain.  God  pity  the  man  or  the  woman  who 
has  no  home. 

Further,  I  remark,  that  home  is  a  political  safe- 
guard. The  safety  of  the  State  must  be  built  on  the 
safety  of  the  home.  Why  can  not  France  come  to  a 
placid  republic?  McMahon  appoints  his  ministry, 
and  all  France  is  aquake  lest  the  republic  be 
smothered.  Gambetta  dies,  and  there  are  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  Frenchmen  who  are  fearing  the 
return  of  a  monarchy.  France  as  a  nation  has  not 
the  right  kind  of  a  Christian  home. 


126  HOME. 

The  Christian  hearth-stone  is  the  only  hearth-stone 
for  a  republic.  The  virtues  cultured  in  the  family 
circle  are  an  absolute  necessity  for  the  State.  If 
there  be  not  enough  moral  principle  to  make  the 
family  adhere,  there  will  not  be  enough  political 
principle  to  make  the  State  adhere.  No  home  means 
the  Goths  and  Vandals,  means  the  Nomads  of  Asia, 
means  the  Numidians  of  Africa  changing  from  place, 
according  as  the  pasture  happens  to  change.  Con- 
founded be  all  those  Babels  of  iniquity  which  would 
overpower  and  destroy  the  home.  The  same  storm 
that  upsets  the  ship  in  which  the  family  sails  will 
sink  the  frigate  of  the  constitution.  Jails,  and  peni- 
tentiaries, and  armies,  and  navies,  are  not  our  best 
defence.  The  door  of  the  home  is  the  best  fortress. 
Household  utensils  are  the  best  artillery,  and  the 
chimneys  of  our  dwelling  houses  are  the  grandest 
monuments  of  safety  and  triumph.  No  home,  no 
republic. 

Home  is  a  school.  Old  ground  must  be  turned  up 
with  subsoil  plow,  and  it  must  be  harrowed  and  re- 
harrowed,  and  then  the  crop  will  not  be  as  large  as 
that  of  the  new  ground  with  less  culture.  Now, 
youth  and  childhood  are  new  ground  and  all  the 
influences  thrown  over  their  heart  and  life  will  come 
up  in  after  life  luxuriantly. 

Every  time  you  have  given  a  smile  of  approba- 
tion— all  the  good  cheer  of  your  life  will  come  up 
again  in  the  geniality  of  your  children.  And  every 
ebullition  of  anger,  and  every  uncontrollable  display 
of  indignation  will  be  fuel  to  their  disposition  twenty 
or  thirty,  or  forty  years  from  now — fuel  for  a  bad 
fire  quarter  of  a  century  from  this.  You  praise  the 
intelligence  of  your  child  too  much  sometimes,  when 


DEATH  ON  THE  PALE  HORSE. 


HOME.  1 29 

you  think  he  is  not  aware  of  it,  and  you  will  see  the 
results  of  it  before  ten  years  of  age,  in  his  annoying 
affectations.  You  praise  his  beauty,  supposing  he  is 
not  large  enough  to  understand  what  you  say,  and 
you  will  find  him  standing  on  a  high  chair  before  a 
flattering  mirror. 

Words,  and  deeds,  and  example  are  the  seed  of 
character,  and  children  are  very  apt  to  be  the  second 
edition  of  their  parents.  Abraham  begat  Isaac,  so 
virtue  is  apt  to  go  down  in  the  ancestral  line ;  but 
Herod  begat  Archelaus,  so  iniquity  is  transmitted. 
What  vast  responsibility  comes  upon  parents  in  view 
of  this  subject. 

Oh,  make  your  home  the  brightest  place  on  earth 
if  you  would  charm  your  children  to  the  high  path 
of  virtue,  and  rectitude,  and  religion.  Do  not  always 
turn  the  blinds  the  wrong  way.  Let  the  light,  which 
puts  gold  on  the  gentian  and  spots  the  pansy,  pour 
into  your  dwellings.  Do  not  expect  the  little  feet  to 
keep  step  to  a  dead  march.  Do  not  cover  up  your 
walls  with  such  pictures  as  West's  "Death  on  a  Pale 
Horse,"  or  Tintoretto's  "Massacre  of  the  Innocents." 
Rather  cover  them,  if  you  have  pictures,  with  "The 
Hawking  Party,"  and  "The  Mill  by  the  Mountain 
Stream,"  and  "The  Fox  Hunt,"  and  "The  Children 
Amid  Flowers,"  and  "The  Harvest  Scene,"  and  "The 
Saturday  Night  Marketing." 

Get  you  no  hint  of  cheerfulness  from  grasshopper's 
leap,  and  lamb's  frisk,  and  quail's  whistle,  and  gar- 
rulous streamlet,  which,  from  the  rock  at  the  moun- 
tain top  clear  down  to  the  meadow  ferns  under  the 
shadow  of  the  steep,  comes  looking  to  see  where  it 
can  find  the  steepest  place  to  leap  off  at,  and  talking 
just  to  hear  itself  talk.  If  all  the  skies  hustled  with 


130  HOME. 

tempest,  and  everlasting  storm  wandered  over  the 
sea,  and  every  mountain  stream  were  raving  mad, 
frothing  at  the  mouth  with  mud  foam,  and  there  were 
nothing  but  simooms  blowing  among  the  hills,  and 
there  were  neither  lark's  carol  nor  humming-bird's 
trill,  nor  waterfall's  dash,  but  only  bear's  bark  and 
panther's  scream  and  wolf's  howl,  then  you  might 
well  gather  into  your  homes  only  the  shadows.  But 
when  God  has  strewn  the  earth  and  the  heavens  with 
beauty  and  with  gladness,  let  us  take  into  our  home 
circles  all  innocent  hilarity,  all  brightness,  and  all 
good  cheer.  A  dark  home  makes  bad  boys  and  bad 
girls,  in  preparation  for  bad  men  and  bad  women. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

IS  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING  ? 

If  we  leave  to  the  evolutionists  to  guess  where  we 
came  from  and  to  the  theologians  to  prophecy  where 
we  are  going  to,  we  will  have  left  for  consideration 
the  important  fact  that  we  are  here.  There  may  be 
some  doubt  about  where  the  river  rises  and  some 
doubt  about  where  the  river  empties,  but  there  can 
be  no  doubt  about  the  fact  that  we  are  sailing  on  it. 
So  I  am  not  surprised  that  everybody  asks  the  ques- 
tion, "  Is  life  worth  living?"  Here  is  a  young  man  of 
light  hair  and  blue  eyes,  and  sound  digestion,  and  gen- 
erous salary,  and  happily  affianced,  and  on  the  way  to 
become  a  partner  in  a  commercial  firm  of  which  he  is 
an  important  clerk.  Ask  him  whether  life  is  worth 
living.  He  will  laugh  in  your  face  and  say,  "  Yes, 
yes,  yes !  "  Here  is  a  man  who  has  come  to  the  for- 
ties. He  is  at  the  tip-top  of  the  hill  of  life.  Every 
step  has  been  a  stumble  and  a  bruise.  The  people  he 
trusted  have  turned  out  deserters,  and  the  money  he 
has  honestly  made  he  has  been  cheated  out  of.  His 
nerves  are  out  of  tune.  He  has  poor  appetite,  and  all 
the  food  he  does  eat  does  not  assimilate.  Forty  miles 
climbing  up  the  hill  of  life  have  been  to  him  like 
climbing  the  Matterhorn,  and  there  are  forty  miles 
yet  to  go  down,  and  descent  is  always  more  danger- 
ous than  ascent.  Ask  him  whether  life  is  worth 


132  IS    LIFE    WORTH    LIVING? 

living,  and  he  will  drawl  out  in  shivering  and  lugu- 
brious, an  appalling  negative,  "  No,  no,  no!-" 

How  are  we  to  decide  this  matter  righteously  and 
intelligently?  You  will  find  the  same  man  vacillat- 
ing, oscillating  in  his  opinion  from  dejection  to  exub- 
erance, and  if  he  be  very  mercurial  in  his  temperament 
it  will  depend  very  much  upon  which  way  the  wind 
blows.  If  the  wind  blow  from  the  northwest,  and  you 
ask  him,  he  will  say,  "Yes;"  and  if  it  blow  from  the 
northeast,  and  you  ask  him,  he  will  say,  "No."  How 
are  we  then  to  get  the  question  righteously  answered  ? 
Suppose  we  call  all  nations  together  in  a  great  con- 
vention on  Eastern  or  Western  hemisphere,  and  let  all 
those  who  are  in  the  affirmative,  say,  "Aye,"  and  all 
those  who  are  in  the  negative,  say,  ".No."  While 
there  would  be  hundreds  of  thousands  who  would 
answer  in  the  affirmative,  there  would  be  more  mil- 
lions who  would  answer  in  the  negative,  and  because 
of  the  greater  number  who  have  sorrow  and  misfor- 
tune and  trouble,  the  "  Noes"  would  have  it.  If  you 
ask  me,  "  Is  life  worth  living?"  I  answer,  it  all  depends 
upon  the  kind  of  life  yon  live. 

In  the  first  place,  I  remark  that  a  life  of  mere  money- 
getting  is  always  a  failure,  because  you  will  never 
get  as  much  as  you  want.  The  poorest  people  in  this 
country  are  the  millionaires,  and  next  to  them  those 
who  have  half  a  million.  There  is  not  a  scissors- 
grinder  on  the  streets  of  New  York  or  Brooklyn  that 
is  so  anxious  to  make  money  as  these  men  who  have 
piled  up  fortunes  year  after  year  in  storehouses,  in 
government  securities,  in  tenement  houses,  in  whole 
city  blocks.  You  ought  to  sec  them  jump  when  they 
hear  the  fire-bell  ring.  You  ought  to  see  them  in 
their  excitement  when  Marine  Bank  explodes.  You 


IS   LIFE   WORTH    LIVING?  133 

ought  to  see  their  agitation  when  there  is  proposed  a 
reformation  in  the  tariff.  Their  nerves  tremble  like 
harp-strings,  but  no  music  in  the  vibration.  They 
read  the  reports  from  Wall  Street  in  the  morning 
with  a  concernment  that  threatens  paralysis  or  ap- 
oplexy, or,  more  probably,  they  have  a  telegraph  or  a 
telephone  in  their  own  house,  so  they  catch  every 
breath  of  change  in  the  money  market.  The  disease 
of  accumulation  has  eaten  into  them — eaten  into  their 
heart,  into  their  lungs,  into  their  spleen,  into  their 
liver,  into  their  bones. 

That  is  not  a  life  worth  living.  There  are  too  many 
earthquakes  in  it,  too  many  agonies  in  it,  too  many 
perditions  in  it.  They  build  their  castles,  and  they 
open  their  picture  galleries,  and  they  summon  prima 
donnas,  and  they  offer  every  inducement  for  happiness 
to  come  and  live  there,  but  happiness  will  not  come. 

They* send  footmaned  and  postillioned  equipage  to 
bring  her ;  she  will  not  ride  to  their  door.  They  send 
princely  escort ;  she  will  not  take  their  arm.  They 
make  their  gateways  triumphal  arches ;  she  will  not 
ride  under  them.  They  set  a  golden  throne  before  a 
golden  plate  ;  she  turns  away  from  the  banquet.  They 
call  to  her  from  upholstered  balcony ;  she  will  not 
listen.  Mark  you,  this  is  the  failure  of  those  who 
have  had  large  accumulation. 

And  then  you  must  take  into  consideration  that  the 
vast  majority  of  those  who  make  the  dominant  idea 
of  life  money-getting,  fall  far  short  of  affluence.  It  is 
estimated  that  only  about  two  out  of  a  hundred  busi- 
ness men  have  anything  worthy  the  name  of  success. 
A  man  who  spends  his  life  with  the  one  dominant 
idea  of  financial  accumulation  spends  a  lite  not  worth 
living. 


134  is  I.IFK  WORTH  LIVING? 

So  the  idea  of  worldly  approval.  If  that  be  dom- 
inant in  a  man's  life  he  is  miserable.  Now,  that  is 
not  a  life  worth  living.  You  can  get  slandered  and 
abused  cheaper  than  that ! 

Take  it  on  a  smaller  scale.  Do  not  be  so  ambitious 
to  have  a  whole  reservoir  rolled  over  on  you.  But 
what  you  see  in  the  matter  of  high  political  prefer- 
ment you  see  in  every  community  in  the  struggle  for 
what  is  called  social  position. 

Tens  of  thousands  of  people  trying  to  get  into  that 
realm,  and  they  are  under  terrific  tension.  What  is 
social  position  ?  It  is  a  difficult  thing  to  define,  but 
we  all  know  what  it  is.  Good  morals  and  intelli- 
gence are  not  necessary,  but  wealth,  or  the  show  of 
wealth,  is  absolutely  indispensable.  There  are  men 
to-day  as  notorious  for  their  libertinism  as  the  night 
is  famous  for  its  darkness,  who  move  in  what  is  called 
high  social  position.  There  are  hundreds  of  out-and- 
out  rakes  in  American  society  whose  names  are  men- 
tioned among  the  distinguished  guests  at  the  great 
levees.  They  have  annexed  all  the  known  vices,  and 
are  longing  for  other  worlds  of  diabolism  to  conquer. 
Good  morals  are  not  necessary  in  many  of  the  exalted 
circles  of  society. 

Neither  is  intelligence  necessary.  You  find  in  that 
realm  men  who  would  not  know  an  adverb  from  an 
adjective  if  they  met  it  a  hundred  times  a  day,  and 
who  could  not  write  a  letter  of  acceptance  or  regret 
without  the  aid  of  a  secretary.  They  buy  their  lib- 
raries by  the  square  yard,  only  anxious  to  have  the 
binding  Russia.  Their  ignorance  is  positively  sub- 
lime, making  English  grammar  almost  disreputable. 
And  yet  the  finest  parlors  open  before  them.  Good 
morals  and  intelligence  arc  not  necessary,  but  wealth, 


IS   LIFE   WORTH   LIVING?  135 

or  a  show  of  wealth,  is  positively  indispensable.  It 
does  not  make  any  difference  how  you  got  your 
wealth  if  you  only  got  it.  Perhaps  you  got  it  by  fail- 
ing four  or  five  times.  It  is  the  most  rapid  way  of  ac- 
cumulation in  this  country — that  is,  the  quickest  way 
to  get  in  social  position.  Those  who  fail  only  once 
are  not  very  well  off,  but  by  the  time  a  man  has  failed 
the  second  time  he  is  comfortable,  and  by  the  time 
he  has  failed  the  third  time  he  is  affluent.  The  best 
way  for  you  to  get  into  social  position  is  for  you  to 
buy  a  large  amount  on  credit,  then  put  your  property 
in  your  wife's  name,  have  a  few  preferred  creditors, 
and  then  make  an  assignment.  Then  disappear  from 
the  community  until  the  breeze  is  over,  and  then 
come  back  and  start  in  the  same  business.  Do  you 
not  see  how  beautifully  that  will  put  out  all  the  peo- 
ple who  are  in  competition  with  you  and  trying  to 
make  an  honest  living?  How  quick.it  will  get  you 
into  high  social  position  ?  What  is  the  use  of  toiling 
with  forty  or  fifty  years  of  hard  work  when  you  can 
by  two  or  three  bright  strokes  make  a  great  fortune. 
Ah  !  my  friends,  when  you  really  lose  your  money 
how  quick  they  will  let  you  drop,  and  the  higher  you 
get  the  harder  you  will  drop. 

There  are  thousands  to-day  in  that  realm  who  are 
anxious  to  keep  in  it.  There  are  thousands  in  that 
realm  who  are  nervous  for  fear  they  will  fall  out  of  it, 
and  there  are  changes  going  on  every  year,  and  every 
month,  and  every  hour,  which  involve  heartbreaks 
that  are  never  reported.  High  social  life  is  constant- 
ly in  a  flutter  about  the  delicate  question  as  to  whom 
they  shall  let  in,  and  whom  they  shall  push  out,  and 
the  battle  is  going  on — pier  mirror  against  pier  mirror, 
chandelier  against  chandelier,  wine  cellar  against 


136  IS   LIFE   WORTH    LIVING? 

wine  cellar,  wardrobe  against  wardrobe,  equipage 
against  equipage.  Uncertainty  and  insecurity  dom- 
inant in  that  realm,  wretchedness  enthroned,  torture 
at  a  premium,  and  a  life  not  worth  living. 

A  life  of  sin,  a  life  of  pride,  a  life  of  indulgence,  a 
life  of  worldliness,  a  life  devoted  to  the  world,  the 
flesh,  and  the  devil  is  a  failure,  a  dead  failure,  an  in- 
finite failure.  I  care  not  how  many  presents  you 
send  to  that  cradle,  or  how  many  garlands  you  send 
to  that  grave,  you  need  to  put  right  under  the  name 
on  the  tombstone  this  inscription :  "  Better  for  that 
man  if  he  had  never  been  born." 

But  I  shall  show  you  a  life  that  is  worth  living.  A 
young  man  says :  "  I  am  here.  I  am  not  responsible 
for  my  ancestry;  others  decided  that.  I  am  not  respon- 
sible for  my  temperament ;  God  gave  me  that.  But 
here  I  am,  in  the  afternoon  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
at  twenty  years  ^f  age.  I  am  here,  and  I  must  take 
an  account  of  stock.  Here  I  have  a  body  which  is  a 
divinely  constructed  engine.  I  must  put  it  to  the 
very  best  uses,  and  I  must  allow  nothing  to  damage 
this  rarest  of  machinery.  Two  feet,  and  they  mean 
locomotion.  Two  eyes,  and  they  mean  capacity  to 
pick  out  my  own  way.  Two  ears,  and  they  are  tele- 
phones of  communication  with  all  the  outside  world, 
and  they  mean  capacity  to  catch  sweetest  music  and 
the  voices  of  friendship — the  very  best  music.  A 
tongue,  with  almost  infinity  of  articulation.  Yes,  hands 
with  which  to  welcome,  or  resist,  or  lift,  or  smite,  or 
wave,  or  bless — hands  to  help  myself  and  help  others. 

"  Here  is  a  word  which,  after  Six  thousand  years  of 
battling  with  tempest  and  accident,  is  still  grander 
than  any  architect,  human  or  angelic,  could  have 
drafted.  I  have  two  lamps  to  light  me — a  golden 


IS   LIFE   WORTH    LIVING?  137 

lamp  and  a  silver  lamp — a  golden  lamp  set  on  the  sap- 
phire mantel  of  the  day,  a  silver  lamp  set  on  the  jet 
mantle  of  the  night.  Yea,  I  have  that  at  twenty 
years  of  age  \\hich  defies  all  inventory  of  valuables — 
a  soul,  with  capacity  to  choose  or  reject,  to  rejoice 
or  to  suffer,  to  love  or  to  hate.  Plato  says  it  is  im- 
mortal. Seneca  says  it  is  immortal.  Confucius  says 
it  is  immortal.  An  old  book  among  the  family  relics — 
a  book  with  leathern  cover  almost  worn  out,  and 
pages  almost  obliterated  by  oft  perusal,  joins  to  the 
other  books  in  saying  I  am  immortal.  I  have  eighty 
years  for  a  lifetime,  sixty  years  yet  to  live.  I  may 
not  live  an  hour,  but  then  I  must  lay  out  my  plans 
intelligently  and  for  a  long  life.  Sixty  years  added 
to  the  twenty  I  have  already  lived,  that  will  bring 
me  to  eighty.  I  must  remember  that  these  eighty 
years  are  only  a  brief  preface  to  the  five  hundred 
thousand  millions  of  quintillicns  of  years  which  will 
be  my  chief  residence  and  existence.  Now,  I  under- 
stand my  opportunities  and  my  responsibilities. 

"  If  there  is  any  being  in  the  universe  all  wise  and 
all  beneficent  who  can  help  a  man  in  such  a  juncture, 
I  want  him.  The  old  book  found  among  the  family 
relics  tells  me  there  is  a  God,  and  that  for  the  sake  of 
His  Son,  one  Jesus,  He  will  give  help  to  a  man,  To 
Him  I  appeal.  God  help  me !  Here,  I  have  sixty 
years  yet  to  do  for  myself  and  to  do  for  others.  I 
must  develop  this  body  by  all  industries,  by  all  gym- 
nastics, by  all  sunshine,  by  all  fresh  air,  by  all  good 
habits.  And  this  soul  I  must  have  swept,  and  gar- 
nished, and  illumined,  and  'glorified  by  all  that  I  can 
do  for  it  and  all  that  I  can  get  God  to  do  for  it.  It 
shall  be  a  Luxembourg  of  fine  pictures.  It  shall  be 
an  orchestra  of  grand  harmonies.  It  shall  be  a  palace 


138  IS   LLFK   WORTH    LIVING? 

for  God  and  righteousness  to  reign  in.  I  wonder 
how  many  kind  words  I  can  utter  in  the  next  sixty 
years  ?  I  will  try.  I  wonder  how  many  good  deeds 
I  can  do  in  the  next  sixty  years?  I  will  try.  God 
help  me !  " 

That  young  man  enters  life.  He  is  buffeted,  he  is 
tried,  he  is  perplexed.  A  grave  opens  on  this  side 
and  a  grave  opens  on  that  side.  He  falls,  but  he 
rises  again.  He  gets  into  a  hard  battle,  but  he  gets 
the  victory.  The  main  course  of  his  life  is  in  the 
right  direction.  He  blesses  everybody  he  comes  in 
contact  with.  God  forgives  his  mistakes,  and  makes 
everlasting  record  of  his  holy  endeavors,  and  at  the 
close  of  it  God  says  to  him  :  "  Well  done,  good  and 
faithful  servant;  enter  into  the  jovs  of  thy  Lord." 
My  brother,  my  sister,  I  do  not  care  whether  that 
man  dies  at  thirty,  forty,  fifty,  sixty,  seventy,  or  eighty 
years  of  age ;  you  can  chisel  right  under  his  name  on 
the  tombstone  these  words,  "  His  life  was  worth 
living." 

I  would  not  find  it  hard  to  persuade  you  that  the 
poor  lad.  Peter  Cooper,  making  glue  for  a  living,  and 
then  amassing  a  great  fortune  until  he  could  build  a 
philanthropy  which  has  had  its  echo  in  ten  thousand 
philanthropies  all  over  the  country — I  would  not  find 
it  hard  to  persuade  you  that  his  life  was  worth  living. 
Neither  would  I  find  it  hard  to  persuade  you  that 
the  life  of  Susannah  Wesley  was  worth  living.  She 
sent  out  one  son  to  organize  Methodism  and  the  other 
son  to  ring  his  anthems  all  through  the  ages.  I 
would  not  find  it  hard  work  to  persuade  you  that  the 
life  of  Frances  Leere  was»\vorth  living,  as  she  estab- 
lished in  England  a  school  for  the  scientific  nursing 
of  the  sick,  and  then  when  the  war  broke  out  be- 


IS   LIFE   WORTH    LIVING?  139 

tween  France  and  Germany,  went  to  the  front,  and 
with  her  own  hands  scraped  the  mud  off  the  bodies 
of  the  soldiers  dying  in  the  trenches,  and  with  her 
weak  arm — standing  one  night  in  the  hospital — push- 
ing back  a  German  soldier  to  his  couch,  as,  all  frenzied 
with  his  wounds,  he  rushed  toward  the  door,  and  said  : 
"  Let  me  go,  let  me  go  to  my  liebe  mutter."  Major-gen- 
erals standing  back  to  let  pass  this  angel  of  mercy. 

Neither  would  I  have  hard  work  to  persuade  you 
that  Grace  Darling  lived  a  life  worth  living — the 
heroine  of  the  lifeboat.  You  say  :  "  While  I  know 
all  these  lived  lives  worth  living,  I  don't  think  my 
life  amounts  to  much."  Ah!  my  Jfriends,  whether 
you  live  a  life  conspicuous  or  inconspicuous,  it  is 
worth  living,  if  you  live  aright.  And  I  want  my 
next  sentence  to  go  down  into  the  depths  of  all  your 
souls.  You  are  to  be  rewarded,  not  according  to  the 
greatness  of  your  work,  but  according  to  the  holy 
industries  with  which  you  employed  the  talents  you 
really  possessed.  The  majority  of  the  crowns  of 
heaven  will  not  be  given  to  people  with  ten  talents, 
for  most  of  them  were  tempted  only  to  serve  them- 
selves. The  vast  majority  of  the  crowns  of  heaven 
will  be  given  to  people  who  had  one  talent,  but  gave 
it  all  to  God.  And  remember  that  our  life  here  is 
introductory  to  another.  It  is  the  vestibule  to  a  pal- 
ace ;  but  who  despises  the  door  of  a  Madeleine  be- 
cause there  are  grander  glories  within  ?  Your  life  if 
rightly  lived  is  the  first  bar  of  an  eternal  oratorio, 
and  who  despises  the  first  note  of  Haydn's  sym- 
phonies ?  And  the  life  you*  live  now  is  all  the  more 
worth  living  because  it  t>pens  into  a  life  that  shall 
never  end,  and  the  last  letter  of  the  word,  "time"  is 
the  first  letter  of  the  word  "eternity !  " 


CHAPTER   XII. 

SOLICITUDE. 

The  first  cause  of  parental  solicitude,  I  think,  arises 
from  the  imperfection  of  parents  on  their  own  part. 
We  all  somehow  want  our  children  to  avoid  our 
faults.  We  hope  that  if  we  have  any  excellencies 
they  will  copy  them ;  but  the  probability  is  they  will 
copy  our  faults,  and  omit  our  excellencies.  Children 
are  very  apt  to  be  echoes  of  the  parental  life.  Some 
one  meets  a  lad  in  the  back  street,  finds  him  smok- 
ing, and  says :  "  Why,  I  am  astonished  at  you  ;  what 
would  your  father  say  if  he  knew  this?  where  did 
you  get  that  cigar?"  "Oh,  I  picked  it  up  on  the 
street."  "  What  would  your  father  say,  and  your 
mother  say,  if  they  knew  this?"  "Oh,"  he  replies, 
"that's  nothing,  my  father  smokes!"  There  is  not 
one  of  us  to-day,  who  would  like  to  have  our  children 
copy  all  our  example.  And  that  is  the  cause  of  solici- 
tude on  the  part  of  all  of  us.  We  have  so  many 
faults  we  do  not  want  them  copied  and  stereotyped 
in  the  lives  and  characters  of  those  who  come 
after  us. 

Then  solicitude  arises  from  our  conscious  insuffi- 
ciency and  unwisdom  of  discipline.  Out  of  twenty 
parents  there  may  be  one  parent  who  understands 
how  thoroughly  and  skillfully  to  discipline;  perhaps 
not  more  than  one  out  of  twenty.  We,  nearly  all  of 
us,  are  on  one  side  or  are  on  the  other. 

140 


SOLICITUDE.  141 

Here  is  a  father  who  says  :  "  I  am  going  to  bring 
up  my  children  right ;  my  sons  shall  know  nothing 
but  religion,  shall  see  nothing  but  religion,  and  hear 
nothing  but  religion."  They  are  routed  at  6  o'clock 
in  the  morning  to  recite  the  Ten  Commandments. 
They  are  wakened  up  from  the  sofa  on  Sunday  night 
to  recite  the  Westminster  catechism.  Their  bedroom 
walls  are  covered  with  religious  pictures  and  quota- 
tions of  Scripture,  and  when  the  boy  looks  for  the 
day  of  the  month  he  looks  for  it  in  a  religious  alma- 
nac. If  a  minister  comes  to  the  house  he  is  requested 
to  take  the  boy  aside,  and  tell  him  what  a  great  sinner 
he  is.  It  is  religion  morning,  noon  and  night. 

Time  passes  on,  and  the  parents  are  waiting  for  the 
return  of  the  son  at  night.  It  is  9  o'clock,  it  is  10 
o'clock,  it  is  ii  o'clock,  it  is  12  o'clock,  it  is  half-past 
12  o'clock.  Then  they  hear  a  rattling  of  the  night- 
key,  and  George  comes  in  and  hastens  upstairs  lest 
he  be  accosted.  His  father  says:  "George,  where 
have  you  been  ? "  He  says  :  "  I  have  been  out." 
Yes,  he  has  been  out,  and  he  has  been  down,  and  he 
has  started  on  the  broad  road  to  ruin  for  this  life  and 
ruin  for  the  life  to  come,  and  the  father  says  to  his 
wife :  "  Mother,  the  Ten  Commandments  are  a  fail- 
ure ;  no  use  of  Westminster  Catechism  ;  I  have  done 
my  very  best  for  that  boy ;  just  see  how  he  has 
turned  out."  Ah  !  my  friend,  you  stuffed  that  boy 
with  religion,  you  had  no  sympathy  with  innocent 
hilarities,  you  had  no  common  sense. 

A  man  at  mid-life  said  to  me :  "  I  haven't  much  de- 
sire for  religion  ;  my  father  was  as  good  a  man  as 
ever  lived,  but  he  jammed  religion  down  my  throat 
when  I  was  a  boy  until  I  got  disgusted  with  it,  and  I 
haven't  wanted  any  of  it  since."  That  father  erred 
on  one  side. 


142  SOLICITUDE. 

Then  the  discipline  is  an  entire  failure  in  many 
households  because  the  father  pulls  one  way  and  the 
mother  pulls  the  other  way.  The  father  says :  "  My 
son,  I  told  you  if  I  ever  found  you  guilty  of  falsehood 
again  I  would  chastise  you,  and  I  am  going  to  keep 
my  promise."  The  mother  says:  ''Don't;  let  him 
off  this  time." 

A  father  says :  "  I  have  seen  so  many  that  make 
mistakes  by  too  great  severity  in  the  rearing  of  their 
children  ;  now,  I  will  let  my  boy  do  as  he  pleases  ;  he 
shall  have  full  swing ;  here,  my  son,  are  tickets  to  the 
theatre  and  opera  ;  if  you  want  to  play  cards,  do  so; 
if  you  don't  want  to  play  cards  you  need  not  play 
them ;  go  when  you  want  to  and  come  back  when 
you  want  to ;  have  a  good  time  ;  go  it !  "  Plenty  of 
money  for  the  most  part,  and  give  a  boy  plenty  of 
money,  and  ask  him  not  what  he  does  with  it,  and 
you  pay  his  way  straight  to  perdition.  But  after  a 
while  the  lad  thinks  he  ought  to  have  a  still  larger 
supply.  He  has  been  treated,  and  he  must  treat. 
He  must  have  wine  suppers.  There  are  larger  and 
larger  expenses. 

After  a  while,  one  day  a  messenger  from  the  bank 
over  .the  way  calls  in  and  says  to  the  father  of  the 
household  of  which  I  am  speaking:  "  The  officers  of 
the  bank  would  like  to  have  you  step  over  a  minute." 
The  father  steps  over  and  the  bank  officer  says:  "  Is 
that  your  check?"  "No,"  he  says,  "  that  is  not  my 
check  ;  I  never  make  an  '  H  '  in  that  way,  and  I  never 
put.  a  curl  to  the  '  Y '  in  that  way ;  that  is  not  my 
writing;  that  is  not  my  signature;  that  is  a  counter- 
feit ;  send  for  the  police."  "  Stop,"  says  the  bank 
officer,  "  your  son  wrote  that." 

the  father  and  mother  are  waiting  for  the  son 


SOLICITUDE.  143 

to  come  home  at  night.  It  is  12  o'clock,  it  is  half-* 
past  12  o'clock,  it  is  i  o'clock.  The  son  comes 
through  the  hallway.  The  father  says ;  "  My  son, 
what  does  all  this  mean?  I  gave  you  every  oppor- 
tunity, I  gave  you  all  the  money  you  wanted,  and 
here  in  my  old  days  I  find  that  you  have  become  a 
spendthrift,  a  libertine,  and  a  sot."  The  son  says: 
*'  Now,  father,  what  is  the  use  of  your  talking  that 
way  ?  You  told  me  to  go  it,  and  I  just  took  your 
suggestion."  And  so  to  strike  the  medium  between 
severity  and  too  great  leniency,  to  strike  the  happy 
medium  between  the  two  and  to  train  our  children 
for  God  and  for  heaven,  is  the  anxiety  of  every  intel- 
ligent parent. 

Another  great  anxiety,  great  solicitude,  is  in  the 
fact  that  so  early  is  developed  childish  sinfulness. 
Morning  glories  put  out  their  bloom  in  the  early  part 
of  the  day,  but  as  the  hot  sun  comes  on  they  close  up. 
While  there  are  other  flowers  that  blaze  their  beauty 
along  the  Amazon  for  a  week  at  a  time  without  clos- 
ing, yet  the  morning  glory  does  its  work  as  certainly 
as  Victoria  regia ;  so  there  are  some  children  that 
just  put  forth  their  bloom,  and  they  close,  and  they 
are  gone.  There  is  something  supernatural  about 
them  while  they  tarry,  and  there  is  an  ethereal  ap- 
pearance about  them.  There  is  a  wonderful  depth  to 
their  eye,  and  they  are  gone.  They  are  too  delicate 
a  plant  for  this  world.  The  Heavenly  Gardener  sees 
them,  and  He  takes  them  in. 

But  for  the  most  part,  the  children  that  live  some- 
times get  cross,  and  pick  up  bad  words  in  the  street, 
or  are  disposed  to  quarrel  with  brother  or  sister,  and 
show  that  they  are  wicked.  You  see  them  in  the 
Sabbath-school  class.  They  are  so  sunshiny  and 


144  SOLICITUDE. 

bright  you  would  think  they  \vereal\vays  so;  but  the 
mother,  looking  over  at  them,  remembers  what  an 
awful  time  she  had  to  get  them  ready.  Time  passes 
on.  They  get  considerably  older,  and  the  son  comes 
in  from  the  street,  from  a  pugilistic  encounter,  bear- 
ing on  his  appearance  the  marks  of  defeat,  or  the 
daughter  practices  some  little  deception  in  the  house- 
hold. The  mother  says :  "  I  can't  always  be  scolc£ 
ing,  and  fretting,  and  finding  fault,  but  this  must  be 
stopped."  So  in  many  a  household  there  is  the  sign 
of  sin,  the  sign  of  the  heart's  being  wrong,  {he  sign  of 
the  truthfulness  of  what  the  Bible  says  when  it  de- 
clares, "  They  go  astray  as  soon  as  they  be  born, 
speaking  lies." 

Some  go  to  work,  and  try  to  correct  all  this,  and 
the  boy  is  picked  at,  and  picked  at,  and  picked  at. 
That  always  is  ruinous.  There  is  more  help  in  one 
good  thunderstorm,  than  in  five  days  of  cold  drizzle. 
Better  the  old-fashioned  style  of  chastisement,  if  that 
be  necessary,  than  the  fretting,  and  the  scolding, 
which  have  destroyed  so  many. 

There  is  also  the  cause  of  great  solicitude  some- 
times because  our  young  people  are  surrounded  by 
so  many  temptations.  A  castle  may  not  be  taken  by, 
a  straightforward  siege,  but  suppose  there  be  inside 
the  castle  an  enemy,  and  in  the  night  he  shoves  back 
the  bolt,  and  swings  open  the  door?  Our  young 
folks  have  foes  without,  and  they  have  foes  within. 
Who  does  not  understand  it?  Who  is  the  man  here 
who  is  not  aware  of  the  fact  that  the  young  people  of 
this  day  have  tremendous  temptations  ? 

Some  man  will  come  to  the  young  people,  and  try 
to  persuade  them  that  purity,  and  honesty,  and  up- 
rightness are  a  sign  of  weakness.  Some  man  will 


SOLICITUDE.  145 

take  a  dramatic  attitude,  and  he  will  talk  to  the 
young  man,  and  he  will  say :  "  You  must  break 
away  from  your  mother's  apron-string- ;  you  must  get 
out  of  that  Puritanical  straight-jacket ;  it  is  time  you 
were  your  own  master ;  you  are  verdant ;  you  are 
green ;  you  are  unsophisticated  ;  come  with  me,  I'll 
show  you  the  world ;  I'll  show  you  life  ;  come  with 
me ;  you  need  to  see  the  world  ;  it  won't  hurt  you." 
After  a  while  the  young  man  says,  "  Well,  I  can't 
afford  to  be  odd,  I  can't  afford  to  be  peculiar,  I  can't 
afford  to  sacrifice  all  my  friends  ;  I'll  just  go  and  see 
for  myself."  Farewell  to  innocence,  which  once 
gone,  never  fully  comes  back.  Do  not  be  under 
the  delusion  that  because  you  repent  of  sin  you 
get  rid  forever  of  its  consequences.  I  say  farewell 
to  innocence,  which  once  gone  never  fully  comes 
back. 

Oh,  how  many  traps  set  for  the  young  !  Styles  of 
temptation  just  suited  to  them.  Do  you  suppose 
that  a  man  who  went  clear  to  the  depths  of  dissipa- 
tion, went  down  in  one  great  plunge  ?  Oh,  no!  At 
first  it  was  a  fashionable  hotel.  Marble  floor.  No 
unclean  pictures  behind  the  counter.  No  drunken 
hiccough  while  they  drink,  but  the  click  of  cut  glass 
to  the  elegant  sentiment.  You  ask  that  young  man 
now  to  go  into  some  low  restaurant,  and  get  a  drink, 
and  he  would  say,  "  Do  you  mean  to  insult  me?" 
But  the  fashionable  and  the  elegant  hotel  is  not 
always  close  by,  and  now  the  young  man*  is  on  the 
down  grade.  Further  and  further  down  until  he  has 
about  struck  the  bottom  of  the  depths  of  ruin.  Now, 
he  is  in  the  low  restaurant.  The  cards  so  greasy  you 
can  hardly  tell  who  has  the  best  hand.  Gambling 
for  drinks.  Shuffle  away,  shuffle  away.  The  land- 


146  SOLICITUDE. 

lord  stands  in  his  shirt-sleeves,  with  his  hands  on  his 
hips,  waiting  for  an  order  to  fill  up  the  glasses. 

The  clock  strikes  twelve — the  tolling  of  the  funeral 
bell  of  a  soul.  The  breath  of  eternal  woe  .flushes  in 
that  young  man's  cheek.  In  the  jets  of  the  gaslight 
the  fiery  tongue  of  the  worm  that  never  dies.  Two 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  now  they  are  sound 
asleep  in  their  chair.  Landlord  comes  around  and 
says,  "  Wake  up,  wake  up !  time  to  shut  up !" 
"  What !  "  says  the  young  man.  "  Time  to  shut  up." 
Push  them  all  out  into  the  night  air.  Now  they  are 
going  home.  Going  home  !  Let  the  wife  crouch  in 
the  corner  and  the  children  hide  under  the  bed. 
What  was  the  history  of  that  young  man?  He 
began  his  dissipations  in  the  bar-room  of  a  Fifth  Ave- 
nue Hotel,  and  completed  his  damnation  in  the  low- 
est grog-shop  on  Atlantic  Street. 

Sometimes  sin  does  not  halt  in  that  way.  Some- 
times sin  even  comes  to  the  drawing-room.  There 
are  leprous  hearts  sometimes  admitted  in  the  highest 
circles  of  society.  He  is  so  elegant,  he  is  so  bewitch- 
ing in  his  manner,  he  is  so  refined,  he  is  so  educated, 
no  one  supects  the  sinful  design  ;  but  after  a  while 
the  talons  of  death  come  forth.  What  is  the  matter 
with  that  house?  The  front  windows  have  not  been 
open  for  six  months  or  a  year.  A  shadow  has  come 
down  on  that  domestic  hearth,  a  shadow  thicker  than 
one  woven  of  midnight  and  hurricane.  The  agony 
of  that  parent  makes  him  say :  "  Oh,  I  wish  I  had 
buried  my  children  when  they  were  small!"  Loss  of 
property  ?  No.  Death  in  the  family  ?  No.  Mad- 
ness? No.  Some  villain,  kid-gloved  and  diamonded, 
lifted  that  cup  of  domestic  bliss  until  the  sunlight 
struck  it,  and  all  the  rainbows  played  around  the  rim, 


SOLICITUDE.  147 

and  then  dashed  it  into  desolation  and  woe,  until  the 
harpies  of  darkness  clapped  their  hands,  and  all  the 
voices  of  the  pit  uttered  a  loud  "  Ha !  ha !  " 

The  statistic  has  never  been  made  up  in  these  great 
cities  of  how  many  have  been  destroyed,  and  how 
many  beautiful  homes  have  been  overthrown.  If  the 
statistic  could  be  presented,  it  would  freeze  your 
blood  in  a  solid  cake  at  your  heart.  Our  great  cities 
are  full  of  temptations,  and  to  vast  multitudes  of  par- 
ents these  temptations  'become  a  matter  of  great 
solicitude. 

But  now  for  the  alleviations.  First  of  all,  you  save 
yourself  a  great  deal  of  trouble,  Oh,  parent,  if  you 
can  early  watch  the  children  and  educate  them  for 
God  and  heaven !  "  The  first  five  years  of  my  life 
made  me  an  infidel,"  said  Tom  Paine. 

A  vessel  puts  out  to  sea,  and  after  it  has  been  five 
days  out  there  comes  a  cyclone.  The  vessel  springs 
a  leak.  The  helm  will  not  work.  What  is  the  mat- 
ter? It  is  not  seaworthy.  It  never  was  seaworthy. 
Can  you  mend  it  now?  It  is  too  late.  Down  she 
goes  with  250  passengers  into  a  watery  grave.  What 
was  the  time  to  fix  that  vessel  ?  What  was  the  time 
to  prepare  it  for  the  storm  ?  In  the  dry  dock.  Ah, 
my  friends,  do  not  wait  until  your  children  get  out 
into  the  world,  beyond  the  Narrows  and  out  on  the 
great  voyage  of  life!  It  is  too  late  then  to  mend 
their  morals  and  their  manners.  The  dry  dock  of  the 
Christian  home  is  the  place.  Correct  the  sin  now, 
correct  the  evil  now. 

Just  look  at  the  character  of  your  children  now 
and  .get  an  intimation  of  what  they  are  going  to  be. 
You  can  tell  by  the  way  that  boy  divides  the  apple 
what  his  proclivity  is  and  what  his  sin  will  be,  and 


148  SOLICITUDE. 

what  style  of  discipline  you  ought  to  bring  upon 
him.  You  let  that  disposition  go.  You  see  how  he 
divides  that  apple?  He  takes  nine-tenths  of  it  for 
himself,  and  he  gives  one-tenth  to  his  sister.  Well, 
let  that  go,  and  all  his  life  he  will  want  the  best  part 
of  everything,  and  he  will  be  grinding  and  grasping 
to  the  day  of  his  death.  Begin  early  with  your  chil- 
dren. You  stand  on  the  banks  of  a  river  and  you  try 
to  change  its  course.  It  has  been  rolling  now  for  a 
hundred  miles.  You  cannot  change  it.  But  just  go 
to  the  source  of  that  river,  go  to  where  the  water  just 
drips  down  on  the  rock.  Then  with  your  knife  make 
a  channel  this  way  and  a  channel  that  way,  and  it 
will  take  it.  Come  out  and  stand  on  the  banks  of 
your  child's  life  when  it  is  thirty  or  forty  years  of 
age,  or  even  twenty,  and  try  to  change  the  course  of 
that  life.  It  is  top  late  !  It  is  too  late  !  Go  further 
up  at  the  source  of  life  and  nearest  to  the  mother's 
heart  where  the  character  starts,  and  try  to  take  it  in 
the  right  direction. 

But  oh,  my  friend,  be  careful  to  make  a  line,  a  dis- 
tinct line  between  innocent  hilarity  on  the  one  hand 
and  vicious  proclivity  on  the  other.  Do  not  think 
your  children  are  going  to  ruin  because  they  make  a 
racket.  All  healthy  children  make  a  racket.  But  do 
not  laugh  at  your  child's  sin  because  it  is  smart.  If 
you  do,  you  will  cry  after  awhile  because  it  is  mali- 
cious. Rebuke  the  very  first  appearance  of  sin.  Now 
is  your  time.  Do  not  begin  too  late. 

Remember  it  is  what  you  do  more  than  what  you 
say  that  is  going  to  affect  your  children.  Do  you 
suppose  Noah  would  have  got  his  family  to  go  into 
the  ark  if  he  staid  out  ?  No.  His  sons  would  have 
said:  "lam  not  going  into  the  boat;  there's  some- 


SOLICITUDE.  149 

thing  wrong  ;  father  won't  go  in  ;  if  father  stays  out, 
I'll  stay  out."  An  officer  may  stand  in  a  castle  and 
look  off  upon  an  army  fighting ;  but  he  cannot  be 
much  of  an  officer,  he  cannot  excite  much  enthusiasm 
on  the  part  of  his  troops,  standing  in  a  castle  or  on  a 
hill-top  looking  off  upon  the  fight.  It  is  a  Garibaldi 
or  a  Napoleon  I.  who  leaps  into  the  stirrups  and 
dashes  ahead.  And  you  stand  outside  the  Christian 
life  and  tell  your  children  to  go  in.  They  will  not 
go.  But  you  dash  on  ahead,  you  enter  the  kingdom 
of  God,  and  they  themselves  will  become  good  sol- 
diers of  Jesus  Christ.  Lead,  if  you  would  have 
them  follow. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

ANANIAS    AND   SAPPHIRA. 

There  are  thousands  of  ways  of  telling  a  lie.  A 
man's  whole  life  may  be  a  falsehood,  and  yet  never 
with  his  lips  may  he  falsify  once.  There  is  a  way  of 
uttering  falsehood  by  look,  by  manner,  as  well  as  by 
lip.  There  are  persons  who  are  guilty  of  dishonesty 
of  speech  and  then  afterward  say  "may  be ;"  call  it  a 
white  lie,  when  no  lie  is  that  color.  The  whitest  lie 
ever  told  was  as  black  as  perdition.  There  are  those 
so  given  to  dishonesty  of  speech  that  they  do  not 
know  when  they  are  lying. 

With  some  it  is  an  acquired  sin,  and  with  others  it 
is  a  natural  infirmity.  There  are  those  whom  you 
will  recognize  as  born  liars.  Their  whole  life,  from 
cradle  to  grave,  is  filled  up  with  vice  of  speech. 
Misrepresentation  and  prevarication  are  as  natural 
to  them  as  the  infantile  diseases,  and  are  a  sort  of 
moral  croup  or  spiritual  scarlatina.  Then  there  are 
those  who  in  after  life  have  opportunities  of  develop- 
ing this  evil,  and  they  go  from  deception  to  decep- 
tion, and  from  class  to  class,  until  they  are  regularly 
graduated  liars. 

There  is  something  in  the  presence  of  natural  ob- 
jects that  has  a  tendency  to  make  one  pure.  The 
trees  never  issue  false  stock.  The  wheat  fields  are 
always  honest.  Rye  and  oats  never  move  out  in  the 
night,  not  paying  for  the  place  they  occupy.  Corn 

150 


ANANIAS   AND   SAPPHIRA.  151 

shocks  never  make  false  assignment.  Mountain 
brooks  are  always  current.  The  gold  of  the  wheat 
fields  is  never  counterfeit.  But  while  the  tendency 
of  agricultural  life  is  to  make  one  honest,  honesty  is 
not  the  characteristic  of  all  who  come  to  the  city 
markets  from  the  country  districts.  You  hear  the 
creaking  of  the  dishonest  farm- wagon  in  almost  every 
street  of  our  great  cities,  a  farm-wagon  in  which 
there  is  not  one  honest  spoke  or  one  truthful  rivet 
from  tongue  to  tail-board.  Again  and  again  has  do- 
mestic economy  in  our  great  cities  foundered  on  the 
farmer's  firkin.  When  New  York,  and  Brooklyn, 
and  Cincinnati,  and  Boston  sit  down  and  weep  over 
their  sins,  Westchester  and  Long  Island  counties  and 
all  the  country  districts  ought  to  sit  down  and  weep 
over  theirs. 

The  tendency  in  all  rural  districts  is  to  suppose 
that  sins  and  transgressions  cluster  in  our  great  cities  ; 
but  citizens  and  merchants  long  ago  learned  that  it  is 
not  safe  to  calculate  from  the  character  of  the  apples 
on  the  top  of  the  farmer's  barrel  what  is  the  charac- 
ter of  the  apples  all  the  way  down  toward  the  bot- 
tom. Many  of  our  citizens  and  merchants  have 
learned  that  it  is  always  safest  to  see  the  farmer  meas- 
ure the  barrel  of  beets.  Milk  cans  are  not  always 
honest.  There  are  those  who  in  country  life  seem 
to  think  they  have  a  right  to  overreach  grain-dealers, 
merchants  of  all  styles.  They  think  it  is  more  hon- 
orable to  raise  corn  than  to  deal  in  corn. 

The  producer  sometimes  practically  says  to  the 
merchant:  "You  get  your  money  easily,  anyhow." 
Does  he  get  it  easy  ?  While  the  farmer  sleeps,  and 
he  may  go  to  sleep  conscious  of  the  fact  that  his  corn 
and  rye  are  all  the  time  progressing  and  adding  to 


152  ANANIAS  AND   SAPPHIRA. 

his  fortune  or  his  livelihood,  the  merchant  tries  to 
sleep  while  conscious  of  the  fact  that  at  that  moment 
the  ship  may  be  driving  on  the  rock,  or  a  wave 
sweeping  over  the  hurricane  deck  spoiling  his  goods, 
or  the  speculators  may  be  plotting  a  momentary 
revolution,  or  the  burglars  may  be  at  that  moment 
at  his  money  safe,  or  the  fire  may  have  kindled  on 
the  very  block  where  his  store  stands. 

Easy  is  it?  Let  those  who  get  their  living  in  the 
quiet  farm  and  barn  take  the  place  of  one  of  our  city 
merchants  and  see  whether  it  is  so  easy.  It  is  hard 
enough  to  have  the  hands  blistered  with  out-door 
work,  but  it  is  harder  with  mental  anxieties  to  have 
the  brain  consumed.  God  help  the  merchants.  And 
do  not  let  those  who  live  in  country  life  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  all  the  dishonesties  belong  to  city- 
life.  There  are  those  who  apologize  for  deviations 
from  the  right  and  for  practical  deception  by  saying 
it  is  commercial  custom.  In  other  words,  a  lie  by 
multiplication  becomes  a  virtue. 

There  are  large  fortunes  gathered  in  which  there 
is  not  one  drop  of  the  sweat  of  unrequited  toil,  and 
not  one  spark  of  bad  temper  flashes  from  the  bronze 
bracket,  and  there  is  not  one  drop  of  needlewoman's 
heart's  blood  on  the  crimson  plush ;  while  there  are 
other  fortunes  about  which  it  may  be  said  that  on 
every  door-knob  and  on  every  figure  of  the  carpet, 
and  on  every  wall  there  is  the  mark  of  dishonor. 
What  if  the  hand  wrung  by  toil,  and  blistered  until 
the  skin  comes  off  should  be  placed  on  the  exquisite 
wall  paper,  leaving  its  mark  of  blood — four  fingers 
and  a  thumb?  or,  if  in  the  night  the  man  should  be 
aroused  from  his  slumber  again  and  again  by  his 
own  conscience,  getting  himself  up  on  his  elbow,  and 
crying  out  into  the  darkness :  "Who  is  there?" 


ANANIAS   AND   SAPPHIRA.  153 

There  are  large  fortunes  upon  which  God's  favor 
comes  down,  and  it  is  just  as  honest  and  just  as 
Christian  to  be  affluent  as  it  is  to  be  poor.  In  many 
a  house  there  is  a  blessing  on  every  pictured  wall, 
and  on  every  scroll,  and  on  every  traceried  window, 
and  the  joy  that  flashes  in  the  lights,  and  that 
showers  in  the  music,  and  that  dances  in  the  quick 
feet  of  the  children  pattering  through  the  hall,  has 
in  it  the  favor  of  God  and  the  approval  of  man.  And 
there  are  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  mer- 
chants who,  from  the  first  day  they  sold  a  yard  of 
cloth,  or  a  firkin  of  butter,  have  maintained  their  in- 
tegrity. They  were  born  honest,  they  will  live  hon- 
est, and  they  will  die  honest. 

But  you  and  I  know  that  there  are  in  commercial 
life  those  who  are  guilty  of  great  dishonesties  of 
speech.  A  merchant  says :  "I  am  selling  these  goods 
at  less  than  cost."  Is  he  getting  for  those  goods  a 
price  inferior  to  that  which  he  paid  for  them  ?  Then 
he  has  spoken  the  truth.  Is  he  getting  more  ?  Then 
he  lies.  A  merchant  says:  "I  paid  $25  for  this 
article."  Is  that  the  price  he  paid  for  it?  All  right. 
But  suppose  he  paid  for  it  $23  instead  of  $25?  Then 
he  lies. 

But  there  are  just  as  many  falsehoods  before  the 
counter  as  there  are  behind  the  counter.  A  customer 
comes  in  and  asks:  "How  much  is  this  article?" 
"It  is  five  dollars."  "I  can  get  that  for  four  some- 
where else."  Can  he  get  it  for  four  somewhere  else, 
or  did  he  say  that  just  for  the  purpose  of  getting 
it  cheap  by  depreciating  the  value  of  the  goods  ? 
If  so,  he  .lied.  There  are  just  as.  many  falsehoods 
behind  the  counter  as  there  are  before  the  counter. 
A  man  unrolls  upon  the  counter  a  bale  of  handker- 


154  ANANIAS   AND   SAPPHIRA, 

chiefs.  The  customer  says:  "Are  these  all  silk?" 
"Yes."  "No  cotton  in  them  ?"  "No  cotton  in  them?" 
Are  those  handkerchiefs  all  silk?  Then  the  mer- 
chant told  the  truth.  Is  there  any  cotton  in  them? 
Then  he  lied.  Moreover,  he  defrauds  himself,  lor 
this  customer,  coming  in  from  Hemp^tead,  or  Yon- 
kers,  or  Newark,  will,  after  a  while,  find  out  that  he 
has  been  defrauded,  and  the  next  time  he  comes  to 
town  and  goes  shopping,  he  will  look  up  at  that  sign 
andsav:  "No,  I  won't  go  there;  that's  the  place 
where  I  got  those  handkerchiefs."  First,  the  mer- 
chant insulted  God,  and  secondly,  he  picked  his  own 
pocket. 

Who  would  take  the  responsibility  of  saying  how 
many  falsehoods  were  yesterday  told  by  hardware 
men,  and  clothiers,  and  lumbermen,  and  tobacconists, 
and  jewelers,  and  importers,  and  shippers,  and  dealers 
in  furniture,  and  dealers  in  coal,  and  dealers  in  gro- 
ceries? Lies  about  buckles,  about  saddles,  about  har- 
ness, about  shoes,  about  hats,  about  coats,  about 
shovels,  about  tongs,  about  forks,  about  chairs,  about 
sofas,  about  horses,  about  lands,  about  everything.  I 
arraign  commercial  falsehood  as  one  of  the  crying 
sins  of  our  time. 

Among  the  artisans  are  those  upon  whom  we  are 
dependent  for  the  houses  in  which  we  live,  the  gar- 
ments we  wear,  the  cars  in  which  we  ride.  The  vast 
majority  of  them  are,  so  far  as  I  know  them,  men 
who  speak  the  truth,  and  they  are  upright,  and  many 
of  them  are.  foremost  in  great  philanthropies  and  in 
churches;  but  that  they  all  do  not  belong  to  that 
class  every  one  knows. 

In  times  when  there  is  a  great  demand  for  labor,  it 
is  not  so  easy  for  such  men  to  keep  their  obligations, 


ANANIAS  AND    SAPPHIRA.  155 

because  they  may  miscalculate  in  regard  to  the 
weather,  or  they  may  not  be  able  to  get  the  help 
they  anticipated  in  their  enterprise.  I  am  speaking 
now  of  those  who  promise  to  do  that  which  they 
know  they  will  not  be  able  to  do.  They  say  they 
will  come  on  Monday ;  they  do  not  come  until 
Wednesday.  They  say  they  will  come  Wednesday  ; 
they  do  not  come  until  Saturday.  They  say  they 
will  have  the  job  done  in  ten  days ;  they  do  not  get 
it  done  before  thirty.  And  then  when  a  man  becomes 
irritated  and  will  not  stand  it  any  longer,  then  they 
go  and  work  for  him  a  day  or  two  and  keep  the  job 
along  ;  and  then  some  one  else  gets  irritated  and  out- 
raged, and  they  go  and  work  for  that  man  and  get 
him  pacified,  and  then  they  go  somewhere  else.  I 
believe  they  call  that  "  nursing  the  job." 

Ah,  my  friends,  how  much  dishonor  such  men 
would  save  their  souls  if  they  would  promise  to  do 
only  that  which  they  know  they  can  do.  "  Oh," 
they  say,  "  it's  of  no  importance  ;  everybody  expects 
to  be  deceived  and  disappointed."  There  is  a  voice 
of  thunder  sounding  among  the  saws  and  the  ham- 
mers and  the  shears,  saying :  "  All  liars  shall  have 
their  place  in  the  lake  that  burns  with  fire  and  brim- 
stone." So  in  all  styles  of  work  there  are  those  who 
are  not  worthy  of  their  work. 

How  much  of  society  is  insincere.  You  hardly 
know  what  to  believe.  They  send  their  regards ; 
you  do  not  exactly  know  whether  it  is  an  expression 
of  the  heart,  or  an  external  civility.  They  ask  you 
to  come  to  their  house  ;  you  hardly  know  whether 
they  really  want  you  to  come.  We  are  all  accustomed 
to  take  a  discount  off  of  what  we  hear. 

Social  l?.fe  is  struck  through  with  insincerity.  They 


156  ANANIAS   AND   SAPPHIRA. 

apologize  for  the  fact  that  the  furnace  is  out ;  they 
have  not  had  any  fire  in  it  all  winter.  They  apolo- 
gize for  the  fare  on  their  table ;  they  never  live  any 
better.  They  decry  their  most  luxuriant  entertain- 
ment to  win  a  shower  of  approval  from  you.  They 
point  at  a  picture  on  the  wall  as  a  work  of  one  of  the 
old  masters.  They  say  it  is  an  heirloom  in  the  fam- 
ily. It  hung  on  the  wall  of  a  castle.  A  duke  gave 
it  to  their  grandfather !  People  that  will  lie  about 
nothing  else  will  lie  about  a  picture.  On  small 
income  we  want  the  world  to  believe  we  are  affluent, 
and  society  to-day  is  struck  through  with  cheat  and 
counterfeit  and  sham.  How  few  people  are  natural. 

Frigidity  sails  around,  iceberg  grinding  against 
iceberg.  You  must  not  laugh  outright ;  that  is  vul- 
gar. You  must  smile.  You  must  not  dash  quickly 
across  the  room  ;  that  is  vulgar.  You  must  glide. 
Society  is  a  round  of  bows  and  grins  and  grimaces 
and  oh's  and  ah's  and  he,  he,  he's,  and  simperings 
and  namby  pambyisms,  a  whole  world  of  which  is  not 
worth  one  good  honest  round  of  laughter.  From 
such  a  hollow  scene  the  tortured  guest  retires  at  the 
close  of  the  evening,  assuring  the  host  that  he  has 
enjoyed  himself.  Society  is  become  so  contorted 
and  deformed  in  this  respect  that  a  mountain  cabin 
where  the  rustics  gather  at  a  quilting  or  an  apple- 
paring  has  in  it  more  good  cheer  than  all  the  frescoed 
refrigerators  of  the  metropolis. 

It  is  hardly  worth  your  while  to  ask  an  extreme 
Calvinist  what  an  Arminian  believes.  He  will  tell 
you  an  Arminian  believes  that  man  can  save  himself. 
An  Arminian  believes  no  such  thing.  It  is  hardly 
worth  your  while  to  ask  an  extreme  Arminian  what 
a  Calvinist  believes.  He  will  tell  you  that  a  Calvin- 


ANANIAS  AND   SAPPHIRA.  157 

1st  believes  that  God  made  some  men  just  to  damn 
them.  A  Calvinist  believes  no  such  thing. 

It  is  hardly  worth  your  while  to  ask  a  Pedo-Baptist 
what  a  Baptist  believes.  He  will  tell  you  a  Baptist 
believes  that  immersion  is  necessary  for  salvation.  A 
Baptist  does  not  believe  any  such  thing.  It  is  hardly 
worth  your  while  to  ask  a  man,  who  very  much  hates 
Presbyterians,  what  a  Presbyterian  believes.  He 
will  tell  you  that  a  Presbyterian  believes  that  there 
are  infants  in  hell  a  span  long,  and  that  very  phra- 
seology has  come  down  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion in  the  Christian  Church.  There  never  was  a 
Presbyterian  who  believed  that.  "  Oh,"  you  say,  "  I 
heard  some  Presbyterian  minister  twenty  years  ago 
say  so."  You  did  not.  There  never  was  a  man  who 
believed  that,  there  never  will  be  a  man  who  will 
believe  that.  And  yet  from  boyhood  I  have  heard 
that  particular  slander  against  a  Christian  Church 
going  down  through  the  community. 

Then  how  often  it  is  that  there  are  misrepresenta- 
tions on  the  part  of  individual  churches  in  regard  to 
other  churches — especially  if  a  church  comes  to  great 
prosperity.  As  long  as  a  church  is  in  poverty,  and 
the  singing  is  poor  and  all  the  surroundings  are  de- 
crepit, and  the  congregation  are  so  hardly  bestead  in 
life  that  their  pastor  goes  with  elbows  out,  then  there 
will  always  be  Christian  people  in  churches  who  say, 
"  What  a  pity,  what  a  pity !  "  But  let  the  day  of 
prosperity  come  to  a  Christian  Church,  and  let  the 
music  be  triumphant,  and  let  there  be  vast  assem- 
blages, and  then  there  will  be  even  ministers  of  the 
Gospel  critical  and  denunciatory  and  full  of  misrep- 
resentation and  falsification,  giving  the  impression 
to  the  outside  world  that  they  do  not  like  the  corn 


158  ANANIAS  AND   SAPPHIRA. 

because  it  is  not  ground  in  their  mill.  Oh,  my 
friends,  let  us  in  all  departments  of  life  stand  back 
from  deception. 

"  Oh,"  says  some  one,  "  the  deception  that  I  prac- 
tice is  so  small  it  don't  amount  to  anything."  Ah, 
my  friends,  it  does  amount  to  a  great  deal.  You  say: 
"  When  I  deceive  it  is  only  about  a  case  of  needles, 
or  a  box  of  buttons,  or  a  row  of  pins."  But  the  arti- 
cle may  be  so  small  you  can  put  it  in  your  vest 
pocket,  but  the  sin  is  as  big  as  the  pyramids,  and  the 
echo  of  your  dishonor  will  reverberate  through  the 
mountains  of  eternity.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a 
small  sin.  They  are  all  vast  and  stupendous,  because 
they  will  all  have  to  come  under  inspection  in  the 
Day  of  Judgment. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE   BALANCE-SHEET. 

The  impression  is  abroad  that  religion  puts  a  man 
on  short  allowance  ;  that  when  the  ship  sailing 
heavenward  comes  to  the  shining  wharf  it  will  be 
found  out  that  all  the  passengers  had  the  hardest 
kind  of  sea-fare;  that  the  soldiers  in  Christ's  army 
march  most  of  the  time  with  an  empty  haversack ;  in 
a  word,  that  only  those  people  have  a  good  time  in 
this  world  who  take  upon  themselves  no  religious 
obligation. 

I  want  to  find  out  whether  this  isfso,  and  I  am  go- 
ing to  take  stock ;  I  am  going  to  show  what  are  the 
Christian's  liabilities,  and  what  is  his  income,  and 
what  are  his  warranty  deeds,  and  what  are  his  bonds 
and  mortgages. 

Now,  it  would  be  an  absurd  thing  to  suppose  that 
God  would  give  to  strangers  privileges  and  advant- 
ages which  He  would  deny  His  own  children.  If 
you  have  a  large  park,  a  grand  mansion,  beautiful 
fountains,  stalking  deer,  and  statuary,  to  whom  will 
you  give  the  first  right  to  all  these  possessions  ?  To 
outsiders  ?  No,  to  your  own  children.  You  will 
say :  "  It  will  be  very  well  for  outsiders  to  come  in, 
and  walk  these  paths,  and  enjoy  this  landscape  ;  but 
the  first  right  to  my  house,  and  the  first  right  to  my 
statuary,  the  first  right  to  my  gardens,  shall  be  in  the 
possession  of  my  own  children." 

159 


l6o  THE    BALANCE-SHEET. 

Now,  this  world  is  God's  park,  and  while  He 
allows  those  who  are  not  His  children,  and  who  re- 
fuse His  authority,  the  privilege  of  walking  through 
the  gardens,  the  possession  of  all  this  grandeur  of 
park  and  mansion  is  in  the  right  of  the  Christian — 
the  flowers,  the  diamonds,  the  silver,  the  gold,  the 
morning  brightness,  and  the  evening  shadow.  The 
Christian  may  not  have  the  title-deed  to  one  acre  of 
land,  as  recorded  in  the  clerk's  office,  he  may  never 
have  paid  one  dollar  of  taxes ;  but  he  can  go  up  on  a 
mountain,  and  look  off  upon  fifty  miles  of  grain-field, 
and  say,  "All  this  is  mine ;  my  Father  gave  it  to  me." 

So  the  refinements  of  life  are  the  Christian's  right. 
He  has  a  right  to  as  good  apparel,  to  as  beautiful 
adornments,  to  as  commodious  a  residence  as  the 
worldling.  Show  me  any  passage  in  the  Bible  that 
tells  the  people  of  the  world  they  have  privileges, 
they  have  glittering  spheres,  they  have  befitting  ap- 
parel, that  are  denied  the  Christian.  There  is  no  one 
who  has  so  much  a  right  to  laugh,  none  so  much  a 
right  to  everything  that  is  beautiful,  and  grand,  and 
sublime  in  life,  as  the  Christian.  "All  are  yours." 
Can  it  be  possible  that  one  who  is  reckless  and  sinful, 
and  has  no  treasures  laid  up  in  heaven,  is  to  be 
allowed  pleasures  which  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
God,  the  owners  of  the  whole  universe,  are  denied? 

So  all  the  sweet  sounds  of  the  world  are  in  the 
Christian's  right.  There  are  people  who  have  an 
idea  that  instruments  of  music  are  inappropriate  for 
the  Christian's  parlor,  or  for  the  Christian  Church. 
When  did  the  house  of  sin,  or  the  bacchanal,  get  the 
right  to  music  ? 

They  have  no  right  to  it.  God  makes  over  to 
Christian  people  all  the  pianos,  all  the  harps,  all  the 


THE    BALANCE-SHEET.  l6l 

drums,  all  the  cornets,  all  the  flutes,  all  the  organs. 
People  of  the  world  may  borrow  them,  but  they  only 
borrow  them  ;  they  have  no  right  or  title  to  them. 
God  gave  them  to  Christian  people  when  He  said : 
"All  are  yours." 

David  no  more  certainly  owned  the  harp  with 
which  he  thrummed  the  praises  of  God,  than  the 
Church  of  Christ  owns  now  all  chants,  all  anthems, 
all  ivory  key-boards,  all  organ  diapasons,  and  God 
will  gather  up  these  sweet  sounds  after  a  while,  and 
He  will  mingle  these  in  one  great  harmony,  and  the 
Mendelssohns,  and  the  Beethovens,  and  the  Mozarts 
of  the  earth  will  join  their  voices,  and  their  musical 
instruments,  and  soft  south  wind  and  loud-lunged 
euroclydon  will  sweep  the  great  organ  pipes,  and 
you  shall  see  God's  hand  striking  the  keys,  and  God's 
foot  tramping  the  pedals  in  the  great  oratorio  of 
the  ages ! 

So  all  the  vicissitudes  of  this  life,  so  far  as  they 
have  any  religious  profit,  are  in  the  right  of  the 
Christian.  You  stand  among  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tains, especially  near  what  is  called  the  "  Horseshoe," 
and  you  will  find  a  train  of  cars  almost  doubling  on 
itself,  and  sitting  in  the  back  car  you  see  a  locomotive 
coming  as  you  look  out  of  the  window,  and  you 
think  it  is  another  train,  when  it  is  only  the  front  of 
the  train  in  which  you  are  riding  ;  and  sometimes 
you  can  hardly  tell  whether  the  train  is  going  toward 
Pittsburgh  or  toward  Philadelphia,  but  it  is  on  the 
track,  and  it  will  reach  the  depot  for  which  it  started, 
and  all  the  passengers  will  be  discharged  at  the  right 
place.  Now,  there  are  a  great  many  sharp  curves  in 
life.  Sometimes  we  seem  to  be  going  this  way,  and 
sometimes  we  seem  to  be  going  that  way  ;  but,  if  we 


1 62  THE    BALANCE-SHEET. 

arc  Christians,  we  are  on  the  right  track,  and  we  are 
going  to  come  out  at  the  right  place.  Do  not  get 
worried,  then,  about  the  sharp  curve. 

A  sailing  vessel  starts  from  New  York  to  Glasgow. 
Does  it  go  in  a  straight  line?  Oh,  no.  It  changes  its 
tack  every  little  while.  Now,  you  say,  "  This  vessel, 
instead  of  going  to  Glasgow,  must  be  going  to  Havre, 
or  it  is  going  to  Hamburg,  or  it  is  going  to  Mar- 
seilles." No,  no.  It  is  going  to  Glasgow.  And  in 
this  voyage  of  life  we  often  have  to  change  our 
tacks.  One  storm  blows  us  this  way,  and  another 
storm  blows  us  that  way  ;  but  He  who  holds  the 
winds  in  His  fist  will  bring  us  into  a  haven  of  ever- 
lasting rest  just  at  the  right  time.  Do  not  worry, 
then,  if  you  have  to  change  tacks. 

One  of  the  best  things  that  ever  happened  to  Paul 
was  being  thrown  off  his  horse.  One  of  the  best 
things  that  ever  happened  to  Joseph  was  being 
thrown  into  the  pit.  The  losing  of  his  physical  eye- 
sight helped  John  Milton  to  see  the  battle  of  the 
angels.  One  of  the  best  things  that  ever  happened  to 
Ignatius  was  being  thrown  to  the  wild  beasts  in  the 
the  Coliseum,  and  while  eighty  thousand  people  were 
jeering  at  his  religion,  he  walked  up  to  the  fiercest  of 
all  the  lions,  and  looked  him  in  the  eye,  as  much  as  to 
say,  "  Here  I  am,  ready  to  be  devoured  for  Christ's 
sake." 

All  things  work  together  for  your  good.  If  you 
walk  the  desert,  the  manna  will  fall,  and  the  sea  will 
part.  II  the  feverish  torch  of  sickness  is  kindled  over 
your  pillow,  by  its  light  you  can  read  the  promise. 
If  the  waves  of  trouble  dash  clear  high,  above  your 
girdle,  across  the  blast  and  across  the  surge  you  can 
hear  the  promise,  "  When  thou  passest  through  the 


THE    BALANCE-SHEET.  163 

waters,  I  will  be  with  thee."  You  never  owned  a 
glove,  or  a  shoe,  or  a  hat,  or  a  coat,  more  certainly 
than  you  own  all  the  frets,  and  annoyances,  and  exas- 
perations of  this  life,  and  they  are  bound  to  work  out 
your  present  and  your  eternal  good.  They  are  the 
saws,  the  hammers,  the  files,  by  which  you  are  to  be 
hewn,  and  cut,  and  smoothed  for  your  eternal  well- 
being. 

I  go  further,  and  tell  you  that  the  Christian  owns, 
not  only  this  world,  but  he  owns  the  next  world. 

No  chasm  to  be  leaped,  no  desert  to  be  crossed. 
There  is  the  wall ;  there  is  the  gate  of  heaven.  He 
owns  all  on  this  side.  Now,  I  am  going  to  show  you 
that  he  owns  all  on  the  other  side.  Death  is  not  a 
ruffian  that  comes  to  burn  us  out  of  house  and  home, 
destroying  the  house  of  the  tabernacle  so  that  we 
should  be  homeless  forever.  Oh,  no  !  He  is  only  a 
black  messenger  who  comes  to  tell  us  it  is  time  to 
move  ;  to  tell  us  to  get  out  of  this  hut,  and  go  up  into 
the  palace.  The  Christian  owns  all  heaven.  "All  are 
yours."  Its  palaces  of  beauty,  its  towers  of  strength, 
castles  of  love.  He  will  not  walk  in  the  eternal  city 
as  a  foreigner  in  a  strange  city,  but  as  a  farmer  walks 
over  his  own  premises,  "All  are  yours."  All  the 
mansions  yours.  Angels  your  companions.  Trees 
of  life  your  shade.  Hills  of  glory  your  lookout. 
Thrones  of  heaven  the  place  where  you  will  shout 
the  triumph.  Jesus  is  yours.  God  is  yours. 

You  look  up  into  the  face  of  God,  and  say,  "  My 
Father."  You  look  up  into  the  face  of  Jesus,  and 
say,  "  My  Brother."  Walk  out  on  the  battlements  of 
heaven,  and  look  off  upon  the  city  of  the  sun. 

No  tears*  No  sorrow.  No  death.  No  smoke  of 
toiling  warehouse  curling  on  the  air.  No  voice  of 


164  THE    BALANCE-SHEET. 

blasphemy  thrilling  through  the  bright,  clear  Sab- 
bath morning.  No  din  of  strife  jarring  the  air.  Then 
take  out  your  deed,  and  remember  that  from  throne 
to  throne,  and  from  wall  to  wall,  and  from  horizon  to 
horizon,  "  all  are  yours." 

Then  go  up  into  the  temple  of  the  sun,  worshipers 
in  white,  each  with  a  palm  branch,  and  from  high 
gallery  of  that  temple  look  down  upon  the  thousands 
of  thousands,  and  the  ten  thousand  times  ten  thou- 
sand, and  the  one  hundred  and  forty  and  four  thou- 
sand, and  the  great  "  multitude  that  no  man  can 
number,"  and  louder  than  the  rush  of  the  wheels, 
louder  than  the  tramp  of  the  redeemed,  hear  a  voice 
saying,  "All  are  yours."  See  the  great  procession 
marching  around  the  throne  of  God.  Martyrs  who 
went  up  on  wings  of  flame.  Invalids  who  went  up 
from  couches  of  distress.  Toilers  who  went  up  from 
the  workhouse,  and  the  factory,  and  the  mine.  All 
the  suffering  and  the  bruised  children  of  God.  See 
the  chariots  of  salvation ;  in  them  those  who  were 
more  than  conquerors.  See  them  marching  around 
about  the  throne  of  God  forever  and  forever,  and 
know  that  "all  are  yours." 

O  ye  who  have  pains  of  body,  that  exhaust  your 
strength  and  wear  out  your  patience,  I  hold  before 
you  this  morning  the  land  of  eternal  health,  and  of 
imperishable  beauty.  O  ye,  who  have  hard  work  to 
get  your  daily  bread,  hard  work  to  shelter  your  chil- 
dren from  the  storm,  I  lift  before  you  the  vision  of 
that  land  where  they  never  hunger,  and  they  never 
thirst,  and  God  feeds  them,  and  robes  cover  them, 
and  the  warmth  of  eternal  love  fills  them,  and  all  that 
is  yours.  O  ye  whose  hearts  are  buried  in  the  grave 
of  your  dead — O  ye  whose  happiness  went  by  long 


THE    BALANCE-SHEET.  165 

ago — O  ye  who  mourn  for  countenances  that  never 
will  light  up,  and  for  eyes  closed  forever — sit  no 
longer  among  the  tombs,  but  look  here.  A  home 
that  shall  never  be  broken  up.  Green  fields  never 
cleft  of  the  grave.  Ransomed  ones,  from  you  parted 
long  ago,  now  radiant  with  a  joy  that  shall  never 
cease,  and  a  love  that  shall  never  grow  cold,  and 
wearing  garments  that  shall  never  wither,  and  know 
all  that  is  yours.  Yours  the  love.  Yours  the  ac- 
claim. Yours  the  transport.  Yours  the  cry  of  the 
four  and  twenty  elders.  Yours  the  choiring  of  cher- 
ubim. Yours  the  lamb  that  was  slain. 

In    the    vision    of   that    orlorious    consummation    I 

C5 

almost  lose  my  foothold,  and  have  to  hold  fast  lest  I 
be  overborne  by  the  glory.  The  vision  rose  before 
St.  John  on  Patmos,  and  he  saw  Christ  in  a  blood-red 
garment,  riding  on  a  white  horse,  and  all  heaven  fol- 
lowing Him  on  white  horses.  What  a  procession  ! 
Let  Jesus  ride.  He  walked  the  way  footsore,  weary, 
and  faint.  Now  let  Him  ride.  White  horse  of  vic- 
tory, bear  on  our  Chief.  Hosanna  to  the  son  of 
David  !  Ride  on,  Jesus !  Let  all  heaven  follow  Him. 
These  cavalry  of  God  fought  well,  and  they  fought 
triumphantly.  Now  let  them  be  mounted.  The 
pavements  of  gold  ring  under  the  flying  hoofs. 
Swords  sheathed  and  victories  won,  like  conquerors 
they  sit  on  their  chargers.  Ye  mounted  troops  of 
God,  ride  on !  ride  on !  ten  thousand  abreast,  caval- 
cade after  cavalcade.  No  blood  dashed  to  the  lips. 
No  blood  dripping  from  the  fetlocks.  No  smoke  of 
battle  breathed  from  the  nostril.  The  battle  is 
ended — the  victory  won  ! 


CHAPTER    XV. 

NOONTIDE   OF   LIFE. 

It  seems  to  me  that  in  some  respects  the  hill-top  in 
the  journey  of  life  is  the  best  part  of  the  journey. 

While  in  early  life  we  are  climbing  up  the  steep 
hillside,  we  have  worries  and  frets,  and  we  slip,  and 
we  fall,  and  we  slide  back,  and  we  run  upon  sharp 
antagonisms,  and  all  the  professions  and  occupations 
have  drudgeries  and  sharp  rivalries  at  the  start.  We 
are  afraid  we  will  not  be  properly  appreciated.  We 
toil  on,  and  we  pant,  and  we  struggle,  and  we  are  out 
of  breath,  and  sometimes  we  are  tempted  to  lie 
down  in  the  bower  of  lazy  indulgence.  In  addition 
to  these  difficulties  of  climbing  the  hill  of  life,  there 
are  those  who  rejoice  in  setting  a  man  back  and  try- 
ing to  make  a  young  man  cowed  down. 

Every  young  man  has  had  somebody  to  meet  him 
as  he  was  climbing  up,  and  say  to  him  :  "  Don't,  don't 
—you  can't,  you  can't — quit,  quit !  "  Every  young 
man  has  had  twenty  disheartenments  where  he  has 
one  round  word  of  good  cheer.  But  after  we  have 
climbed  to  the  top  of  the  hill  of  life,  then  we  have 
comparative  tranquility  and  repose.  We  begin  to 
look  about  us.  We  find  that  it  is  just  three  miles 
from  cradle  to  grave :  Youth  the  first  mile,  man- 
hood the  second  mile,  old  age  the  third  mile.  Stand- 
ing on  the  hill-top  of  the  journey  of  life  and  in  the 
second  mile,  having  come  up  one  side  the  hill,  and 

166 


NOONTIDE   OF   LIFE.  1 67 

before  I  go  down  the  other  side,  I  want  to  tell  you 
that  life  is  to  me  a  happiness,  and  much  of  the  time 
it  has  been  to  me  a  rapture,  and  sometimes  an 
ecstasy. 

There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  wholesale  slander 
of  this  world.  People  abuse  it,  and  the  traveler  on 
the  mountain  curses  the  chill,  and  the  voyager  on  the 
deep  curses  the  restlessness,  and  there  are  those  who 
say  it  is  a  mean,  old,  despicable  world,  and  from  pole 
to  pole  it  has  been  calumniated ;  and  if  the  world 
should  present  a  libel  suit  for  all  those  who  have 
slandered  it,  there  would  not  be  gold  enough  in  the 
mountains  to  pay  the  damages,  or  places  enough  in 
the  penitentiaries  to  hold  the  offenders.  The  people 
not  only  slander  the  world,  but  they  slander  its 
neighbors,  and  they  belabor  the  sun,  now  because  it 
is  too  ardent,  and  now  because  it  is  too  distant ;  but 
by  experience  coming  up  the  hill  of  life  I  have  found 
out  when  there  is  anything  wrong  the  trouble  is  not 
with  the  sun,  or  the  moon,  or  the  stars,  or  the 
meteorological  conditions ;  the  trouble  is  with  my- 
self. Oh,  I  am  so  glad  that  while  this  world  as  a 
finality  is  a  dead  failure,  as  a  hotel  where  we  stop  for 
awhile  in  our  traveling  on  toward  a  better  place,  it 
is  a  very  good  world,  a  very  kind  world,  and  I  am 
glad  that  the  shepherd  in  so  pleasant  a  place  makes 
his  flocks  rest  at  noon  ! 

But  having  told  you  how  life  seems  to  me  on  the 
hill-top  of  the  journey,  you  naturally  want  to  know 
how  it  seems  to  me  when  I  look  backward,  and  when 
I  look  forward.  The  first  thing  a  traveler  does  after 
climbing  up  to  the  top  of  a  mountain  is  to  take  a  long 
breath,  and  then  look  about  and  see  what  is  all  around 
him.  He  sees  out  in^this  direction  the  winding  road 


l68  NOONTIDE   OK   LIFE. 

up  which  he  came,  and  out  in  that  direction  the  wind- 
ing road  down  which  he  shall  go.  And  so,  standing 
on  the  hill-top  of  life's  journey,  I  put  my  outspread 
hand  to  my  forehead,  so  as  to  keep  off  the  glare  of 
the  noonday's  sun,  and  to  concentre  my  vision,  and 
1  look  back  on  the  winding  road  on  which  I  have 
traveled,  and  I  see  far  on  down  at  the  foot  of  that 
road,  in  the  dim  distance,  something  small,  something 
insignificant,  and  it  vibrates,  and  it  trembles,  and  it 
rocks.  I  wonder  what  it  is.  I  guess  what  it  is.  A 
cradle  ! 

Then  I  turn,  and  still  keeping  my  outspread  hand 
to  my  forehead  so  as  to  shade  my  eyes  from  the  glare 
of  the  noonday's  sun,  and  to  concentrate  my  vision,  I 
look  on  the  winding  road  down  which  I  shall  travel, 
and  I  see  at  the  foot  of  the  road  something  that  does 
not  tremble,  does  not  vibrate,  does  not  rock — some- 
thing white — and  then  near  it  a  bank  of  the  earth, 
and  1  wonder  what  it  is.  Ah  !  I  see  what  it  is.  I 
guess  what  it  is.  I  know  what  it  is.  A  grave. 

So,  standing  on  the  hill-top,  having  come  up  one 
side  the  hill,  and  before  I  go  down  the  other  side, 
you  ask  me  two  or  three  questions,  and  I  tell  you  that 
I  have  learned  in  coming  up  this  side  of  life,  the  steep 
side,  the  first  side — I  have  learned  that  nothing  is  ac- 
complished without  hard  work.  And  I  say  to  the 
multitude  of  young  people  starting  in  occupations 
and  professions,  nothing  is  accomplished  without 
work,  hard  work,  continuous  work,  all-absorbing 
work,  everlasting  work. 

A  parishioner  asked  a  clergyman  why  the  congre- 
gation had  filled  up,  and  why  the  church  was  now  so 
prosperous  above  what  it  had  ever  been  before. 
"Well,"  said  the  clergyman,  "I  will  tell  you  the 


NOONTIDE   OF   LIFE.  169 

secret.  I  met  a  tragedian  some  time  ago,  and  I  said 
to  him, '  How  is  it  you  get  along  so  well  in  your  pro- 
fession ? '  The  tragedian  replied,  '  The  secret  is,  I 
always  do  my  best ;  when  stormy  days  come,  and  the 
theatre  is  not  more  than  half  or  a  fourth  occupied,  I 
always  do  my  best,  and  that  has  been  the  secret  of 
my  getting  on.'  '  And  the  clergyman  reciting  it, 
said :  "  I  have  remembered  that,  and  ever  since  then 
I  have  always  done  my  best."  And  I  say  to  you,  in 
whatever  occupation  or  profession  God  has  put  you, 
Do  your  best ;  whether  the  world  appreciates  it  or 
not,  do  your  best — always  do  your  best.  Domitian, 
the  Roman  emperor,  for  one  hour  every  day  caught 
flies  anid  killed  them  with  his  penknife ;  and  there  are 
people  with  imperial  opportunity  who  set  themselves 
to  some  insignificant  business.  Oh,  for  something 
grand  to  do,  and  then  concentrate  all  your  energies  of 
body,  mind,  and  soul  upon  that  one  thing,  and  noth- 
ing in  earth  or  hell  can  stand  before  you.  There  is 
no  such  thing  as  good  luck. 

I  have  learned  also  in  coming  up  this  steep  hill  of 
life,  that  all  events  are  connected.  I  look  back  and 
now  see  events  which  I  thought  were  isolated  and 
alone,  but  I  find  now  they  were  adjoined  to  every- 
thing that  went  before,  and  everything  that  came 
after.  The  chain  of  life  is  made  up  of  a  great  many 
links — large  links,  small  links,  silver  links,  iron  links, 
beautiful  links,  ugly  links,  mirthful  links,  solemn  links 
— but  they  are  all  parts  of  one  great  chain  of  destiny. 
Each  minute  is  made  up  of  sixty  links,  and  each  day 
is  made  up  of  twenty-four  links,  and  each  year  is 
made  of  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  links ;  but  they 
are  all  parts  of  one  endless  chain  which  plays  and 
works  through  the  hand  of  an  all-governing  God. 


I/O  NOONTIDE   OK    LIFE. 

No  event  stands  alone.  Sometimes  you  say,  "  This 
is  my  day  off."  You  will  never  have  a  day  off. 
Nothing  is  off. 

But  if  you  continue  to  ask  me  how  the  past  seems, 
I  answer  it  seems  like  three  or  four  picture  galleries — 
Dusseldorl,  Louvre,  and  Luxembourg — their  corri- 
dors interjoining.  1  close  my  eyes  and  see  them 
coasting  the  hillside,  and  flving  the  kite,  and  trund- 
ling the  hoop,  and  gathering  nuts  in  the  autumnal 
forests,  and  then  a  little  while  after,  bending  in 
anxious  study  over  the  lexicons  and  the  trigonom- 
etries. Where  are  those  comrades?  Most  of  them 
gone.  Some  are  in  useful  spheres  on  earth.  Some 
died  in  rapture,  and  a  good  many  of  them  perished 
in  dissipation  before  thirty  years  of  age.  The  wine- 
cup,  with  its  sharp  edge,  cut  the  jugular  vein  of  their 
soul.  Poor  fellows !  They  tried  the  world  without 
God,  and  the  world  was  too  much  for  them.  Splen- 
did fellows!  Oh,  what  forehead  they  had  for  brain, 
and  what  muscle  they  had  for  strength,  and  what 
gleam  of  eye  they  had  for  genius,  and  what  loving 
letters  they  got  from  home,  and  how  they  carried  off 
the  bouquets  on  Commencement  Day !  But  they 
made  the  terrific  mistake  of  thinking  religion  a  super- 
fluity, and  now  they  are  in  my  memory,  not  so  much 
canvas  as  sculpture — some  Laocoon  struggling  with 
snapped  muscles,  and  eyes  starting  from  the  socket 
for  torture  ;  struggling  amid  the  crushing  folds  of  a 
serpentine  monstrosity,  a  reptile  horror,  a  Laocoon 
worse  than  that  of  the  ancients. 

Satan  has  a  fastidious  appetite,  and  the  vulgar 
souls  he  throws  into  a  trough  to  fatten  his  swine; 
but  he  says :  "Bring  to  my  golden  plate  all  the  fine 
natures,  bring  to  niv  golden  plate  all  the  clear  intel- 


NOONTIDE   OF   LIFE.  I/I 

lects,  bring  them  to  me ;  my  knife  will  cut  down 
through  the  lusciousness ;  fill  my  chalice  with  the 
richest  of  their  blood  ;  pour  it  in  until  it  comes  three- 
fourths  full ;  pour  it  in  until  it  comes  to  the  rim  of 
the  chalice  ;  pour  it  until  the  blood  bubbles  over  the 
rim.  There,  that  will  do  now.  Oh,  this  infernal 
banquet  of  great  souls  !  Aha  !  aha  !  let  the  common 
demons  have  the  vulgar  souls,  but  give  to  me,  who 
am  the  king  of  all  diabolism,  the  jolliest,  the  gladdest, 
and  the  grandest  of  all  this  immortal  sacrifice.  Aha!" 

Then  in  my  mind  there  is  the  home  gallery. 

Oh,  those  dear  faces,  old  faces  and  young  faces, 
faces  that  have  lost  nothing  of  their  loveliness  by  the 
recession  of  years,  faces  into  which  we  looked  when 
we  sat  on  their  laps,  faces  that  looked  up  to  us  when 
they  sat  on  our  laps,  faces  that  wept,  faces  that 
laughed,  faces  wrinkled  with  old  age,  faces  all  aflush 
with  juvenile  jocundity,  faces  that  have  disappeared, 
faces  gone. 

But  you  ask  how  the  rest  of  the  journey  appears 
to  me.  As  I  look  down  now,  having  come  up  one 
side,  and  standing  on  the  hill-top,  and  before  I  take 
the  other  journey,  let  me  say  to  you,  the  road  yet  to 
be  traveled,  seems  to  me  brighter  than  the  one  on 
which  I  have  journeyed.  I  would  not  want  to  live 
life  over  again,  as  some  wish  to.  If  we  lived  life 
over  again  we  would  do  no  better  than  we  have 
done.  Our  lives  have  been  lived  over  five  hundred 
times  before.  We  saw  five  hundred  people  make 
mistakes  in  life,  and  we  went  right  on  and  made  the 
same  mistakes.  Our  life  was  not  the  first.  There 
were  five  hundred  or  a  thousand  people  living  before 
us.  We  did  not  profit  by  their  example.  We  went 
right  on  and  broke  down  in  the  same  place,  and  if 


1 72  NOONTIDE  OF  LIFE. 

we  did  not  do  any  better  with  those  experiences  be- 
fore us,  do  you  think  we  would  do  any  better  if  we 
tried  life  over  again  ?  No.  I  should  rather  go  right 
on.  If  we  tried  life  over  again  we  would  repeat  the 
same  journey. 

"But,"  says  some  one,  "don't  you  know  there  may 
be  trials,  hardships,  sicknesses,  and  severe  duties 
ahead  ?"  Oh,  yes !  But  if  I  am  on  a  railroad  jour- 
ney of  a  thousand  miles,  and  I  have  gone  five  hun- 
dred of  the  miles,  and  during  those  five  hundred  miles 
I  have  found  the  bridges  safe,  and  the  track  solid, 
and  the  conductors  competent,  and  the  engineer 
wide  awake,  does  not  that  give  me  confidence  for 
the  other  five  hundred  miles  ?  God  has  seen  me 
through  up  to  this  time,  and  I  am  going  to  trust  Him 
for  the  rest  of  the  journey.  I  believe  I  have  a 
through  ticket,  and  although  sometimes  the  track 
may  turn  this  way  or  the  other  way,  and  sometimes 
we  may  be  plunged  through  tunnels,  and  sometimes 
we  may  have  a  hot  box  that  detains  the  train,  and 
sometimes  we  may  switch  off  upon  a  side  track  to  let 
somebody  else  pass,  and  sometimes  we  may  see  a  red 
flag  warning  us  to  slow  up,  I  believe  we  are  going 
through  to  the  right  place. 

I  have  not  a  fear,  an  anxiety,  that  1  can  mention.  I 
do  not  know  one.  I  put  all  my  case  in  God's  hands, 
and  I  have  not  any  anxiety  about  the  future.  I  do 
not  feel  foolhardy.  I  only  trust.  I  trust,  I  trust,  I 
trust !  And — for  there  are  those  here  of  my  own 
age — let  me  say,  when  we  come  to  duties,  and  trials, 
and  hardships,  God  is  going  to  see  us  through. 

From  this  hill-top  of  life  I  catch  a  glimpse  of  those 
hill-tops  where  all  sorrow  and  sighing  shall  be  done 
away.  Oh,  that  God  would  make  that  world  to  us  a 


NOONTIDE   OF   LIFE.  173 

reality !  Faith  in  that  world  helped  old  Dr.  Tyng, 
when  he  stood  by  the  casket  of  his  dead  son,  whose 
arm  had  been  torn  off  in  the  threshing-machine,  death 
ensuing;  and  Dr.  Tyng,  with  infinite  composure, 
preached  the  funeral  sermon  of  his  own  beloved  son. 
Faith  in  that  world  helped  Martin  Luther,  without 
one  tear,  to  put  away  in  death  his  favorite  child. 
Faith  in  that  world  helped  the  dying  woman  to  see 
on  the  sky  the  letter  "W,"  and  they  asked  her  what 
she  supposed  the  letter  "  W "  on  the  sky  meant. 
"Oh,"  she  said,  "don't  you  know  ?  W  stands  for 
welcome."  O  Heaven,  swing  open  thy  gates!  O 
Heaven,  roll  upon  us  some  of  thine  anthems !  O 
Heaven,  flash  upon  us  the  vision  of  thy  luster ! 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

A   SCROLL   OF    HEROES. 

Historians  are  not  slow  to  acknowledge  the  merits 
of  great  military  chieftains.  We  have  the  full-length 
portraits  of  the  Baldwins,  the  Cromwells,  and  the 
Marshal  Neys  of  the  world.  History  is  not  written 
in  black  ink,  but  with  red  ink  of  human  blood.  The 
gods  of  human  ambition  did  not  drink  from  bowls 
made  out  of  silver,'or  gold,  or  precious  stones,  but 
out  of  the  bleached  skulls  of  the  fallen.  But  I  am  to 
unroll  before  you  a  scroll  of  heroes  that  the  world 
has  never  acknowledged  ;  they  who  faced  no  guns, 
blew  no  bugle  blast,  conquered  no  cities,  chained  no 
captives  to  their  chariot  wheels,  and  yet,  in  the  great 
day  of  eternity  will  stand  higher  than  those  whose 
names  startled  the  nations;  and  seraph  and  rapt 
spirit  and  archangel  will  tell  their  deeds  to  a  listening 
universe.  I  mean  the  heroes  of  common,  everyday 
life. 

In  this  roll,  in  the  first  place,  I  find  all  the  heroes 
of  the  sick  room. 

When  Satan  had  failed  to  overcome  Job  he  said  to 
God :  "  Put  forth  thy  hand  and  touch  his  bone  and 
his  flesh,  and  he  will  curse  Thee  to  Thy  face."  Satan 
had  found  out  what  we  have  all  found  out,  that  sick- 
ness is  the  greatest  test  of  character.  A  man  who 
can  stand  that  can  stand  anything;  to  be  shut  in  a 
room  as  fast  as  though  it  were  a  Bastile ;  to  be  so 

174 


A   SCROLL  OF  HEROES.  1/5 

nervous  you  cannot  endure  the  tap  of  a  child's  foot ; 
to  have  luxuriant  fruit,  which  tempts  the  appetite  of 
the  robust  and  healthy,  excite  our  loathing  and  dis- 
gust when  it  first  appears  on  the  platter ;  to  have  the 
rapier  of  pain  strike  through  the  side  or  across  the 
temples  like  a  razor,  or  to  put  the  foot  into  a  vise,  or 
to  throw  the  whole  body  into  the  blaze  of  a  fever. 
Yet  there  have  been  men  and  women,  but  more 
women  than  men,  who  have  cheerfully  endured  this 
hardness.  Through  years  of  exhausting  rheumatisms 
and  excruciating  neuralgias  they  have  gone,  and 
through  bodily  distresses,  that  rasped  the  nerves,  and 
tore  the  muscles,  and  paled  the  cheeks,  and  stooped 
the  shoulders.  By  the  dim  light  of  the  sick  room 
taper  they  saw  on  their  wall  the  picture  of  that  land 
where  the  people  are  never  sick.  Through  the  dead 
silence  of  the  night  they  have  heard  the  chorus  of 
the  angels. 

Those  who  suffered  on  the  battlefield,  amid  shot  and 
shell,  were  not  so  much  heroes  and  heroines  as  those 
who  in  the  field  hospital  and  in  the  asylum  had 
fevers  which  no  ice  could  cool  and  no  surgeon  could 
cure.  No  shout  of  comrade  to  cheer  them,  but 
numbness  and  aching  and  homesickness — yet  willing 
to  suffer,  confident  in  God,  hopeful  of  heaven. 
Heroes  of  rheumatism,  heroes  of  neuralgia,  heroes  of 
spinal  complaint,  heroes  of  sick  headache,  heroes  of 
life-long  invalidism,  heroes  and*  heroines,  they  shall 
reign  forever  and  forever.  Hark  !  I  catch  just  one 
note  of  the  eternal  anthem :  "  There  shall  be  no  more 
pain."  Bless  God  for  that. 

In  this  roll  I  also  find  the  heroes  of  toil,  who  do 
their  work  uncomplainingly.  It  is  comparatively 
easy  to  lead  a  regiment  into  battle  when  you  know 


176  A   SCROLL   OK    HEROES. 

that  the  whole  nation  will  applaud  the  victory  ;  it  is 
comparatively  easy  to  doctor  the  sick  when  you 
know  that  your  skill  will  be  appreciated  by  a  large 
company  of  friends  and  relatives;  it  is  comparatively 
easy  to  address  an  audience  when  in  the  gleaming 
eyes  and  the  flushed  cheeks  you  know  that  your  sen- 
timents are  adopted  ;  but  to  do  sewing  where  you 
expect  that  the  employer  will  come  and  thrust  his 
thumb  through  the  work  to  show  how  imperfect  it 
is,  or  to  have  the  whole  garment  thrown  back  on  you, 
to  be  done  over  again ;  to  build  a  wall  and  know 
there  will  be  no  one  to  say  you  did  it  well,  but  only 
a  swearing  employer  howling  across  the  scaffold  ;  to 
work  until  your  eyes  are  dim,  and  your  back  aches, 
and  your  heart  faints,  and  to  know  that  if  you  stop 
before  night  your  children  will  starve — that  is 
heroism. 

Ah,  the  sword  has  not  slain  so  many  as  the  needle ! 
The  great  battlefields  of  our  last  war  were  not 
Gettysburg  and  Shiloh  and  South  Mountain.  The 
great  battlefields  of  the  last  war  were  in  the  arsenals^ 
and  the  shops  and  the  attics,  where  women  made 
army  jackets  for  a  sixpence.  They  toiled  on  until 
they  died.  They  had  no  funeral  eulogium,  but  in 
the  name  of  my  God  this  morning  I  enroll  their 
names  among  those  of  whom  the  world  was  not 
worthy  ; — heroes  of  the  needle,  heroes  of  the  sewing- 
machine,  heroes  of  <he  attic,  heroes  of  the  cellar, 
heroes  and  heroines. 

In  this  roll  I  also  find  the  heroes  who  have  uncom- 
plainingly endured  domestic  injustices.  There  are 
men  who  for  their  toil  and  anxiety  have  no  sympathy 
in  their  homes.  Exhausting  application  to  business 
gets  them  a  livelihood,  but  an  unfrugal  wife  scatters  it. 


A   SCROLL   OF   HEROES.  177 

The  husband  is  fretted  at  from  the  moment  he  enters 
the  door  until  he  comes  out  of  it — the  exasperations 
of  business  life  augmented  by  the  exasperations  of 
domestic  life.  Such  men  are  laughed  at,  but  they 
have  a  heart-breaking  trouble,  and  they  would  have 
long  ago  gone  into  appalling  dissipations  but  for  the 
grace  of  God.  Society  to-day  is  strewn  with  the 
wrecks  of  men  who  under  the  northeast  storm  of 
domestic  infelicitv  have  been  driven  on  the  rocks. 

./ 

There  are  tens  of  thousands  of  drunkards  in  this 
country  to-day  made  such  by  their  wives.  That  is 
not  poetry  ;  that  is  prose  ! 

But  the  wrong  is  generally  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion. You  would  not  have  to  go  far  to  find  a  wife 
whose  life  is  a  perpetual  martyrdom — something 
heavier  than  a  stroke  of  the  fist,  unkind  words,  stag- 
gerings  home  at  midnight,  and  constant  maltreatment, 
which  have  left  her  only  a  wreck  of  what  she  was  on 
that  day  when,  in  the  midst  of  a  brilliant  assemblage, 
the  vows  were  taken  and  full  organ  played  the 
wedding  march,  and  the  carriage  rolled  away  with 
the  benediction  of  the  people. 

What  was  the  burning  of  Latimer  and  Ridley  at 
the  stake  compared  with  this?  Those  men  soon 
became  unconscious  in  the  fire,  but  here  is  a  fifty 
years'  martyrdom,  a  fifty  years'  putting  to  death,  yet 
uncomplaining.  No  bitter  words  when  rollicking 
companions  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  pitch  the 
husband  dead  drunk  on  the  stoop  ;  no  bitter  words 
when,  wiping  from  the  swollen  brow  the  blood  struck 
out  in  a  midnight  carousal,  or  bending  over  the  bat- 
tered and  bruised  form  of  him  who,  when  he  took 
her  from  her  father's  home,  promised  love  and  kind- 
ness and  protection ;  nothing  but  sympathy,  and 


178  A   SCROLL  OF    HEROES. 

prayers,  and  forgiveness  before  it  is  asked  for.  No 
bitter  words  when  the  family  Bible  goes  for  rum,  and 
the  pawnbroker's  shop  gets  the  last  decent  dress. 

Some  day,  desiring  to  evoke  the  story  of  her  sor- 
row, you  say  :  "  Well,  how  are  you  getting  along 
now  ?  "  And  rallying  her  trembling  voice,  and  quiet- 
ing her  quivering  lip,  she  says  :  "  Pretty  well,  I  thank 
you ;  pretty  well."  She  never  will  tell  you.  In  the 
delirium  of  her  last  sickness  she  may  tell  all  the 
secrets  of  her  lifetime,  but  she  will  not  tell  that.  Not 
until  the  books  of  eternity  are  opened  on  the  thrones 
of  judgment  will  ever  be  known  what  she  has  suf- 
fered. Oh,  ye  who  are  twisting  a  garland  for  the 
victor !  put  it  on  that  pale  brow. 

When  she  is  dead  the  neighbors  will  beg  linen  to 
make  her  a  shroud,  and  she  will  be  carried  out  in  a 
plain  box,  with  no  silver  plate  to  tell  her  years,  for 
she  has  lived  a  thousand  years  of  trial  and  anguish. 
The  gamblers  and  the  swindlers  who  destroyed  her 
husband,  will  not  come  to  the  funeral.  One  carriage 
will  be  enough  for  that  funeral — one  carriage  to  carry 
the  orphans  and  the  two  Christian  women  who  pre- 
sided over  the  obsequies.  But  there  is  a  flash,  and  a 
clank  of  a  celestial  door,  and  a  shout,  "  Lift  up  your 
head,  ye  everlasting  gates,  and  let  her  come  in." 
And  Christ  will  step  forth,  and  say,  "Come  in!  ye 
suffered  with  Me  on  earth,  be. glorified  with  Me  in 
heaven."  What  is  the  highest  throne  in  heaven  ? 
You  say,  "  The  throne  of  the  Lord  God  Almighty 
and  the  Lamb."  No  doubt  about  it.  What  is  the 
next  highest  throne  in  heaven?  While  I  speak  it 
seems  to  me  that  it  will  be  the  throne  of  the  drunk- 
ard's wife,  if  she,  with  cheerful  patience,  endured  all 
her  earthly  torture.  Heroes  and  heroines. 


A   SCROLL   OF   HEROES.  179 

I  find  also  in  this  roll  the  heroes  of  Christian  charity. 
We  all  admire  the  George  Peabodys  and  the  James 
Lenoxes  of  the  earth,  who  give  tens  and  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  dollars  to  good  objects.  When  Moses 
H.  Grinnell  was  buried,  the  most  significant  thing 
about  the  ceremonies  was  that  there  was  no  sermon 
and  no  oration ;  a  plain  hymn,  a  prayer,  and  a-  bene- 
diction. "Well,"  I  said,  "that  is  very  beautiful." 
All  Christendom  pronounces  the  eulogium  of  Moses 
H.  Grinnell,  and  the  icebergs  that  stand  as  monu- 
ments to  Franklin  and  his  men,  will  stand  as  the 
monument  of  this  great  merchant,  and  the  sunlight 
that  plays  upon  the  glittering  cliff  will  write  his 
epitaph. 

But  I  am  speaking  of  those  who,  out  of  their 
pinched  poverty,  help  others — of  such  men  as  those 
Christian  missionaries  at  the  West,  who  are  living  on 
two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year,  that  they  may 
proclaim  Christ  to  the  people,  one  of  them  writing  to 
the  secretary  in  New  York,  saying,  "  I  thank  you  for 
that  twenty-five  dollars.  Until  yesterday  we  have 
had  no  meat  in  our  house  for  three  months.  We 
have  suffered  terribly.  My  children  have  no  shoes 
this  winter."  And  of  those  people  who  have  only 
a  half  loaf  of  bread,  but  give  a  piece  of  it  to  others 
who  are  more  hungry  ;  and  of  those  who  have  only  a 
scuttle  of  coal,  but  help  others  to  fuel ;  and  of  those 
who  have  only  a  dollar  in  their  pocket,  and  give 
twenty-five  cents  to  somebody  else ;  and  of  that 
father  who  wears  a  shabby  coat,  and  of  that  mother 
who  wears  a  faded  dress,  that  their  children  may  be 
well  appareled. 

You  call  them  paupers,  or  ragamuffins,  or  tatterde- 
malions. I  call  them  heroes  and  heroines.  You  and 


ISO  A   SCROLL   OF   HEROES. 

I  may  not  know  where  they  live,  or  what  their  name 
is.  God  knows ;  and  they  have  more  angels  hovering 
over  them  than  you  and  I  have,  and  they  will  have  a 
higher  seat  in  heaven.  They  may  have  only  a  cup  of 
cold  water  to  give  a  poor  traveler,  or  may  have  only 
picked  a  splinter  from  under  the  nail  of  a  child's 
finger,  or  have  put  only  two  mites  into  the  treasury, 
but  the  Lord  knows  them.  Considering  what  they 
had,  they  did  more  than  we  have  ever  done,  and 
their  faded  dress  will  become  a  white  robe,  and  the 
small  room  will  be  an  eternal  mansion,  and  the  old 
hat  will  be  a  coronet  of  victory,  and  all  the  ap- 
plause of  earth  and  all  the  shouting  of  heaven  will  be 
drowned  out  when  God  rises  up  to  give  His  reward 
to  those  humble  workers  in  His  kingdom,  and  to  say 
to  them,  "  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servants." 

You  have  all  seen  or  heard  of  the  ruin  of  Melrose 
Abbey.  I  suppose  in  some  respects  it  is  the  most 
exquisite  ruin  on  earth.  And  yet,  looking  at  it,  I  was 
not  so  impressed — you  may  set  it  down  to  bad  taste 
—but  I  was  not  so  deeply  stirred  as  I  was  at  a  tomb- 
stone at  the  foot  of  that  abbey — the  tombstone  planted 
by  Walter  Scott  over  the  grave  of  an  old  man  who 
had  served  him  for  a  good  many  years  in  his  house — 
the  inscription  most  significant,  and  I  defy  any  man 
to  stand  there  and  read  it  without  tears  coming  into 
his  eyes — the  epitaph,  "  Well  done,  good  and  faithful 
servant."  Oh,  when  our  work  is  over,  will  it  be 
found  that  because  ot  anything  we  have  done  for 
God,  or  the  Church,  or  suffering  humanity,  that  such 
an  inscription  is  appropriate  for  us?  God  grant  it! 

Do  not  envy  any  man  his  money,  or  his  applause, 
or  his  social  position.  Do  not  envy  any  woman  her 
wardrobe,  or  her  exquisite  appearance.  Be  the  hero 


A   SCROLL   OF   HEROES.  l8l 

or  the  heroine.  If  there  be  no  flour  in  the  house,  and 
you  do  not  know  where  your  children  are  to  get 
bread,  listen,  and  you  will  hear  something  tapping 
against  the  window-pane.  Go  to  the  window,  and 
you  will  find  it  is  the  beak  of  a  raven  ;  and  open  the 
window,  and  there  will  fly  in  the  messenger  that  fed 
Elijah. 

Do  you  think  that  the  God  who  grows  the  cotton  *"" 
of  the  South  will  let  you  freeze  for  lack  of  clothes  ? 
Do  you  think  that  the  God  who  allowed  the  disciples 
on  Sunday  morning  to  go  into  the  grainfield,  and 
then  take  the  grain,  and  rub  it  in  their  hands,  and  eat 
— do  you  think  God  will  let  you  starve  ?  Did  you 
ever  hear  the  experience  of  that  old  man  :  "  I  have 
been  young,  and  now  am  old  ;  yet  have  I  not  seen  the 
righteous  forsaken,  or  his  seed  begging  bread?" 
Get  up  out  of  your  discouragement,  O  troubled  soul, 
O  sewing  woman,  O  man  kicked  and  cuffed  by  un- 
just employers,  O  ye  who  are  hard  bestead  in  the 
battle  of  life  and  know  not  which  way  to  turn,  O  you 
bereft  one,  O  you  sick  one  with  complaints  you  have 
told  to  no  one  !  Come  and  get  the  comfort  of  this 
subject.  Listen  to  our  great  Captain's  cheer :  "To 
him  that  overcometh,  will  I  give  to  eat  of  the  fruit  of 
the  tree  of  life  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  paradise 
of  God." 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

BURDENS    LIFTED. 

In  the  far  East,  wells  of  water  are  so  infrequent 
that  when  a  man  owns  a  well  he  has  a  property  of 
very  great  value,  and  sometimes  battles  have  been 
fought  for  the  possession  of  one  well  of  water ;  but 
there  is  one  well  that  every  man  owns,  a  deep  well, 
a  perennial  well,  a  well  of  tears.  If  a  man  has  not  a 
burden  on  this  shoulder,  he  has  a  burden  on  the 
other  shoulder. 

The  day  I  left  home  to  look  after  myself  and  for 
myself,  in  the  wagon  my  father  sat  driving,  and  he 
said  that  day  something  which  has  kept  with  me  all 
my  life:  "De  Witt,  it  is  always  safe  to  trust  God. 
I  have  many  a  time  come  to  a  crisis  of  difficulty. 
You  may  know  that,  having  been  sick  for  fifteen 
years,  it  was  no  easy  thing  for  me  to  support  a  fam- 
ily; but  always  God  came  to  the  rescue.  I  remem- 
ber the  time,"  he  said,  "when  I  didn't  know  what  to 
do,  and  I  saw  a  man  on  horseback  riding  up  the  farm 
lane,  and  he  announced  to  me  that  I  had  been  nomi- 
nated for  the  most  lucrative  office  in  all  the  gift  of  the 
people  of  the  county  ;  and  to  that  office  I  was  elected, 
and  God  in  that  way  met  all  my  wants,  and  I  tell 
you  it  is  always  safe  to  trust  Him." 

Oh,  my  friends,  what  we  want  is  a  practical 
religion !  The  religion  people  have  is  so  high  up 
you  can  not  reach  it. 

182 


BURDENS   LIFTED.  183 

There  are  a  great  many  men  who  have  business 
burdens.  When  \ve  see  a  man  harried,  and  per- 
plexed, and  annoyed  in  business  life,  we  are  apt  to 
say:  "He  ought  not  to  have  attempted  to  carry  so 
much."  Ah !  that  man  mav  not  be  to  blame  at  all. 
When  a  man  plants  a  business  he  does  not  know 
what  will  be  its  outgrowths,  what  will  be  its  roots, 
what  will  be  its  branches.  There  is  many  a  man 
with  keen  foresight  and  large  business  faculty  who 
has  been  flung  into  the  dust  by  unforeseen  circum- 
stances springing  upon  him  from  ambush.  When  to 
buy,  when  to  sell,  when  to  trust,  and  to  what  amount 
of  credit,  what  will  be  the  effect  of  this  new  inven- 
tion of  machinery,  what  will  be  the  effect  of  that  loss 
of  crop,  and  a  thousand  other  questions  perplex  busi- 
ness men  until  the  hair  is  silvered  and  deep  wrinkles 
are  plowed  in  the  cheek ;  and  the  stocks  go  up  by 
mountains  and  go  down  by  valleys,  and  they  are  at 
their  wits'  ends,  and  stagger  like  drunken  men. 

This  is  a  world  of  burden-bearing.  Where  is  the 
soul  that  has  not  a  struggle?  There  is  never  an 
audience  assembles  on  the  planet  where  the  text  is 
not  gloriously  appropriate  :  "Cast  thy  burden  upon 
the  Lord,  and  He  shall  sustain  thee." 

You  hear  that  it  is  avarice  which  drives  these  men 
of  business  through  the  street,  and  that  is  the  com- 
monly accepted  idea.  I  do  not  believe  a  word  of  it. 
The  vast  multitude  of  these  business  men  are  toiling 
on  for  others.  To  educate  their  children,  to  put 
wing  of  protection  over  their  households,  to  have 
something  left  so  when  they  pass  out  of  this  life  their 
wives  and  children  will  not  have  to  go  to  the  poor- 
house — that  is  the  way  I  translate  this  energy  in  the 
street  and  store — the  vast  majority  of  that  energy. 


1 84  BURDENS   LIFTED. 

Grip,  Gouge  &  Co.,  do  not  do  all  the  business.  Some 
of  us  remember  when  the  Central  America  was  com- 
ing home  from  California  it  was  wrecked.  President 
Arthur's  father-in-law  was  the  heroic  captain  of  that 
ship,  and  went  down  with  most  of  the  passengers. 
Some  of  them  got  off  into  the  life-boats,  but  there 
was  a  young  man  returning  from  California  who  had 
a  bag  of  gold  in  his  hand  ;  and  as  the  last  boat  shoved 
off  from  the  ship  that  was  to  go  down,  that  young 
man  shouted  to  a  comrade  in  the  boat:  "Here,  John, 
catch  this  gold ;  there  are  three  thousand  dollars ; 
take  it  home  to  my  old  mother,  it  will  make  her 
comfortable  in  her  last  days."  Grip,  Gouge  &  Co. 
do  not  do  all  the  business  of  the  world. 

Ah !  mv  friend,  do  you  say  that  God  does  not  care 
anything  about  your  worldly  business?  I  tell  you 
God  knows  more  about  it  than  you  do.  He  knows 
all  your  perplexities ;  He  knows  what  mortgagee  is 
about  to  foreclose;  He  knows  what  note  you  can- 
not pay  ;  He  knows  what  unsalable  goods  you  have 
on  your  shelves;  He  knows  all  your  trials,  from  the 
day  you  took  hold  of  the  first  yard  stick  down  t«  that 
sale  of  the  last  yard  of  ribbon,  and  the  God  who 
helped  David  to  be  king,  and  who  helped  Daniel  to 
be  prime  minister,  and  who  helped  Havelock  to  be  a 
soldier,  will  help  you  to  discharge  all  your  duties. 
He  is  going  to  see  you  through.  When  loss  comes, 
and  you  find  vour  property  going,  just  take  this 
Book  and  put  it  down  by  your  ledger,  and  read  of 
the  eternal  possessions  that  will  come  to  you  through 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  And  when  your  business 
partner  betrays  you,  and  your  friends  turn  against 
you,  just  take  the  insulting  letter,  put  it  down  on  the 
table,  put  your  Bible  beside  the  insulting  letter,  and 


BURDENS   LIFTED.  185 

then  read  of  the  friendship  of  Him  who  "sticketh 
closer  than  a  brother." 

A  young  accountant  in  New  York  City  got  his 
accounts  entangled.  He  kne\y  he  was  honest,  and 
yet  he  could  not  made  his  accounts  come  out  right, 
and  he  toiled  at  them  day  and  night  until  he  was 
nearly  frenzied.  It  seemed  by  those  books  that 
something  had  been  misappropriated,  and  he  knew 
before  God  he  was  honest.  The  last  day  came.  He 
knew  if  he  could  not  that  day  make  his  accounts 
come  out  right,  he  would  go  into  disgrace  and  go 
into  banishment  from  the  business  establishment. 
He  went  over  there  very  early,  before  there  was 
anybody  in  the  place,  and  he  knelt  down  at  the  desk 
and  said :  "Oh,  Lord,  Thou  knowest  I  have  tried  to 
be  honest,  but  I  can  not  make  these  things  come  out 
right!  Help  me  to-day — help  me  this  morning!" 
The  young  man  arose,  and  hardly  knowing  why  he 
did  so,  opened  a  book  that  lay  on  the  desk,  and  there 
was  a  leaf  containing  a  line  of  figures  which  explained 
everything.  In  other  words,  he  cast  his  burden  upon 
the  Lord,  and  the  Lord  sustained  him.  Young  man, 
do  you  hear  that  ? 

Oh,  yes,  God  has  a  sympathy  with  anybody  that 
is  in  any  kind  of  toil!  He  knows  how  heavy  is  the 
hod  of  bricks  that  the  workman  carries  up  the  ladder 
of  the  wall ;  He  hears  the  pickaxe  of  the  miner  down 
in  the  coal  shaft ;  He  knows  how  strong  the  tempest 
strikes  the  sailor  a-t  masthead  ;  He  sees  the  factory 
girl  among  the  spindles,  and  knows  how  her  arms 
ache ;  He  sees  the  sewing  woman  in  the  fourth 
story,  and  knows  how  few  pence  she  gets  for  making 
a  garment ;  and  louder  than  all  the  din  and  roar 
of  the  city  comes  the  voice  of  a  sympathetic  God: 


1 86  BURDENS    LIFTED. 

"Cast  thy  burden  upon  the  Lord,  and  He  shall  sus- 
tain thee." 

Then  .there  are  a  great  many  \vho  have  a  weight 
of  persecution  and  abuse  upon  them.  Sometimes  so- 
ciety gets  a  grudge  against  a  man.  All  his  motives 
are  misinterpreted,  and  his  good  deeds  are  de- 
preciated. With  more  virtue  than  some  of  the  hon- 
ored and  applauded,  he  runs  only  against  raillery 
and  sharp  criticism.  When  a  man  begins  to  go  down, 
he  has  not  only  the  force  of  natural  gravitation,  but 
a  hundred  hands  to  help  him  in  the  precipitation. 
Men  are  persecuted  for  their  virtues,  and  their  suc- 
cesses,. Germanicus  said  he  had  just  as  many  bitter 
antagonists  as  he  had  adornments.  The  character 
sometimes  is  so  lustrous  that  the  weak  eyes  of  Envy 
and  Jealousy  can  not  bear  to  look  at  it. 

It  was  their  integrity  that  put  Joseph  in  the  pit, 
and  Daniel  in  the  den,  and  Shadrach  in  the  tire,  and 
sent  John  the  Evangelist  to  desolate  Patmos,  and 
Calvin  to  the  castle  of  persecution,  and  John  Huss  to 
the  stake,  and  Korah  after  Moses,  and  Saul  after 
David,  and  Herod  after  Christ.  Be  sure  if  you  have 
anything  to  do  for  church  or  state,  and  you  attempt 
it  with  all  your  soul,  lightning  will  strike  you. 

The  world  always  has  had  a  cross  between  two 
thieves  for  the  one  who  comes  to  save  it.  High  and 
.holy  enterprise  has  always  been  followed  by  abuse. 
The  most  sublime  tragedy  of  self-sacrifice  has  come 
to  burlesque.  The  graceful  gait  of  virtue  is  always 
followed  by  scoffed  with  grimace  and  travesty.  The 
sweetest  strain  of  poetry  ever  written  has  come  to 
ridiculous  parody,  and  as  long  as  there  are  virtue  and 
righteousness  in  the  world,  there  will  be  something 
for  iniquity  to  grin  at.  All  along  the  line  of  the  ages, 


BURDENS   LIFTED.  187 

and  in  all  lands,   the  cry  has  been  :     -'Not  this  man 
but  Barabbas.     Now,  Barabbas  was  a  robber." 

And  what  makes  the  persecutions  of  life  worse,  is 
that  they  come  from  people  whom  you  have  helped, 
from  those  to  whom  you  loaned  money  or  have 
started  in  business,  or  whom  you  rescued  in  some 
great  crisis.  I  think  it  has  been  the  history  of  all  our 
lives — the  most  acrimonious  assault  has  come  from 
those  whom  we  have  benefited,  whom  we  have 
helped,  and  that  makes  it  all  the  harder  to  bear.  A 
man  is  in  danger  of  becoming  cynical. 

A  clergyman  of  the  Universalist  Church  went  into 
a  neighborhood  for  the  establishment  of  a  church  of 
his  denomination,  and  he  was  anxious  to  find  some 
one  of  that  denomination,  and  he  was  pointed  to  a 
certain  house,  and  went  there.  He  said  to  the  man 
of  the  house  :  "I  understand  you  are  a  Universalist ; 
I  want  you  to  help  me  in  the  enterprise."  "Well," 
said  the  man,  "I  am  a  Universalist,  but  I  have  a  pe- 
culiar kind  of  Universalism."  What  is  that?"  asked 
the  minister.  "Well,"  replied  the  other,  "I  have 
been  out  in  the  world,  and  I  have  been  cheated,  and 
slandered,  and  outraged,  and  abused,  until  I  believe 
in  universal  damnation !" 

The  great  danger  is  that  men  will  become  cynical, 
and  given  to  believe,  as  David  was  tempted  to  say, 
that  all  men  are  liars.  Oh,  my  friends,  do  not  let 
that  be  the  effect  upon  your  souls ! 

Now,  if  you  have  come  across  ill-treatment,  let  me 
tell  you  you  are  in  excellent  company — Christ,  and 
Luther,  and  Galileo,  and  Columbus,  and  John  Jay, 
and  Josiah  Quincy,  and  thousands  of  men  and  women, 
the  best  spirits  of  earth  and  heaven.  Budge  not  one 
inch,  though  all  hell  wreak  upon  you  its  vengeance, 


1 88  BURDENS   LIFTED. 

and  you  be  made  a  target  for  devils  to  shoot  at.  Do 
you  not  think  Christ  knows  all  about  persecution  ? 
Was  He  not  hissed  at?  Was  He  not  struck  on  the 
cheek?  Was  He  not  pursued  all  the  days  of  His 
life?  Did  they  not  expectorate  upon  Him?  Or,  to 
put  it  in  Bible  language,  "They  spit  upon  Him." 
And  can  not  He  understand  what  persecution  is  ? 
"Cast  thy  burden  upon  the  Lord,  and  He  shall  sus- 
tain thee." 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

THE   DAY   WE    LIVE   IN. 

It  is  my  business  to  tell  you  what  style  of  men  and 
women  you  ought  to  be  in  order  that  you  may  meet 
the  demand  of  the  age  in  which  God  has  cast  your 
lot.  If  you  really  would  like  to  know  what  this  age 
has  a  right  to  expect  of  you  as  Christian  men  and 
women,  then  I  am  ready,  in  the  Lord's  name,  to  look 
you  in  the  face.  When  two  armies  have  rushed  into 
battle  the  officers  of  either  army  do  not  want  a  philo- 
sophical discussion  about  the  chemical  properties  of 
human  blood,  or  the  nature  of  gunpowder ;  they 
want  some  one  to  man  the  batteries  and  swab  out  the 
guns.  And  now,  when  all  the  forces  of  light  and 
darkness,  of  heaven  and  hell,  have  plunged  into  the 
fight,  it  is  no  time  to  give  ourselves  to  the  definitions, 
and  formulas,  and  technicalities,  and  conventionalities 
of  religion.  What  we  want  is  practical,  earnest,  con- 
centrated, enthusiastic,  and  triumphant  help. 

In  the  first  place,  in  order  to  meet  the  special  de- 
mand of  this  age,  you  need  to  be  an  unmistakably 
aggressive  Christian.  Of  half-and-half  Christians  we 
do  not  want  any  more.  The  Church  of  Jesus  Christ 
will  be  better  without  ten  thousand  of  them.  They 
are  the  chief  obstacle  to  the  Church's  advancement. 
I  am  speaking  of  another  kind  of  Christian.  All  the 
appliances  for  your  becoming  an  earnest  Christian  are 
at  your  hand,  and  there  is  a  straight  path  for  you  into 

189 


IQO  THE   DAY   WE   LIVE   IN. 

the  broad  daylight  of  God's  forgiveness.  You  re- 
member what  excitement  there  was  in  this  country, 
years  ago,  when  the  Prince  of  Wales  came  here — 
how  the  people  rushed  out  by  hundreds  of  thousands 
to  see  him.  Why?  Because  they  expected  that 
some  day  he  would  sit  upon  the  throne  of  England. 
But  what  was  all  that  honor  compared  with  the  honor 
to  which  God  calls  you — to  be  sons  and  daughters  of 
the  Lord  Almighty  ;  yea,  to  be  kings  and  queens 
unto  God  ?  "  They  shall  reign  with  Him  forever  and 
forever." 

But  my  friends,  you  need  to  be  aggressive  Chris- 
tians, and  not  like  those  persons  who  spend  their  lives 
in  hugging  their  Christian  graces,  and  wondering 
why  they  do  not  make  any  progress.  How  much 
robustness  of  health  would  a  man  have  if  he  hid  him- 
self in  a  dark  closet  ?  A  great  deal  of  the  piety  of 
the  day  is  too  exclusive.  It  hides  itself.  It  needs 
more  fresh  air,  more  outdoor  exercise.  There  are 
many  Christians  who  are  giving  their  entire  life  to 
self-examination.  They  are  feeling  their  pulse  to  see 
what  is  the  condition  of  their  spiritual  health.  How 
long  would  a  man  have  robust  physical  health,  if  he 
kept  all  the  days,  and  the  weeks,  and  months,  and 
years  of  his  life  feeling  his  pulse,  instead  of  going  out 
into  active,  earnest,  everyday  work  ? 

I  was  once  amid  the  wonderful,  bewitching  cactus 
growths  of  North  Carolina.  I  never  was  more  be- 
wildered with  the  beauty  of  flowers,  and  yet,  when  I 
would  take  up  one  of  these  cactuses,  and  pull  the 
leaves  apart,  the  beauty  was  all  gone.  You  could 
hardly  tell  that  it  had  ever  been  a  flower.  And  there  t 
are  a  great  many  Christian  people  in  this  day  just 
pulling  apart  their  Christian  experiences  to  see  what 


THE    DAY    WE    LIVE   IN.  IQI 

there  is  in  them,  and  there  is  nothing  left  in  them. 
This  style  of  self-examination  is  a  damage  instead  of 
an  advantage  to  their  Christian  character.  I  re- 
member when  I  was  a  boy  I  used  to  have  a  small 
piece  in  the  garden  that  T  called-  my  own,  and  I 
planted  corn  there,  and  every  few  days  I  would  pull 
it  up  to  see  how  fast  it  was  growing.  Now,  there  are 
a  great  many  Christian  people  in  this  day  whose  self- 
examination  merely  amounts  to  the  pulling  up  of 
that  which  they  only  yesterday,  or  the  day  before, 
planted. 

Oh,  my  friends,  if  you  want  to  have  a  stalwart 
Christian  character,  plant  it  right  out-of-doors  in  the 
great  field  of  Christian  usefulness,  and  though  storms 
may  come  upon  it,  and  though  the  hot  sun  ol  trial 
may  try  to  consume  it,  it  will  thrive  until  it  becomes 
a  great  tree,  in  which  the  fowls  of  heaven  may  have 
their  habitation.  I  have  no  patience  with  these 
flower-pot  Christians.  They  keep  themselves  under 
shelter,  and  all  their  Christian  experience  in  a  small, 
exclusive  circle,  when  they  ought  to  plant  it  in  the 
great  garden  of  the  Lord,  so  that  the  whole  atmos- 
phere could  be  aromatic  with  their  Christian  useful- 
ness. What  we  want  in  the  Church  of  God  is  more 
brawn  of  piety. 

The  century  plant  is  wonderfully  suggestive  and 
wonderfully  beautiful,  but  I  never  look  at  it  without 
thinking  of  its  parsimony.  It  lets  whole  generations 
go  by  before  it  puts  forth  one  blossom  ;  so  I  have 
really  more  heartfelt  admiration  when  I  see  the  dewy 
tears  in  the  blue  eyes  of  the  violets,  for  they  come 
every  spring.  My  Christian  friends,  time  is  going  by 
so  rapidly  that  we  cannot  afford  to  be  idle. 

A  recent  statistician  says  that  human  life  now  has 


IQ2  THE    DAY    \VD    LIVE    IN. 

an  average  of  only  thirty-two  years.  From  these 
thirty-two  years  you  must  subtract  all  the  time  you 
take  for  sleep,  and  the  taking  of  food  and  recreation ; 
that  will  leave  you  about  sixteen  years.  From  those 
sixteen  years  yoti  must  subtract  all  the  time  that  you 
are  necessarily  engaged  in  the  earning  of  a  liveli- 
hood ;  that  will  leave  you  about  eight  years.  From 
those  eight  years  you  must  take  all  the  days,  and 
weeks,  and  months — all  the  length  of  time  that  is 
passed  in  childhood  and  sickness,  leaving  you  about 
one  year  in  which  to  work  for  God  !  Oh,  my  soul, 
wake  up !  How  darest  thou  sleep  in  harvest-time, 
and  with  so  few  hours  in  which  to  reap?  So  that  I 
state  it  as  a  simple  fact,  that  all  the  time  that  the  vast 
majority  of  you  will  have  for  the  exclusive  service  of 
God  will  be  less  than  one  year ! 

"  But,"  says  some  man,  "  I  liberally  support  the 
Gospel,  and  the  Church  is  open,  and  the  Gospel  is 
preached;  all  the  spiritual  advantages  are  spread 
before  men,  and  if  they  want  to  be  saved  let  them 
come  to  be  saved  ;  I  have  discharged  all  my  respon- 
sibility." Ah!  is  that  the  Master's  spirit?  Is  there 
not  an  old  Book  somewhere  that  commands  us  to  go 
out  into  the  highways  and  the  hedges,  and  compel 
the  people  to  come  in  ?  What  would  have  become 
of  you  and  me  if  Christ  had  not  come  down  off  the 
hills  of  heaven,  and  if  He  had  not  come  through  the 
door  of  the  Bethlehem  caravansary,  and  if  He  had 
not  with  the  crushed  hand  of  the  crucifixion  knocked 
at  the  iron  gate  of  the  sepulchre  of  our  spiritual 
death,  crying,  "Lazarus,  come  forth?"  Oh,  my 
Christian  friends,  this  is  no  time  for  inertia,  when  all 
the  forces  of  darkness  seem  to  be  in  full  blast ;  when 
steam  printing  presses  are  publishing  infidel  tracts ; 


THE   DAY   WE   LIVE   IN.  193 

when  express  railroad  trains  are  carrying  messengers 
of  sin;  when  fast  clippers  are  laden  with  opium  and 
rum  ;  when  the  night  air  of  our  cities  is  polluted 
with  the  laughter  that  breaks  up  from  the  ten  thou- 
sand saloons  of  dissipation  and  abandonment ;  when 
the  fires  of  the  second  death  already  are  kindled  in 
the  cheeks  of  some  who  only  a  little  while  ago  were 
incorrupt.  Oh,  never  since  the  curse  fell  upon  the 
earth  has  there  been  a  time  when  it  was  such  an 
unwise,  such  a  cruel,  such  an  awful  thing  for  the 
Church  to  sleep.  The  great  audiences  are  not  gath- 
ered in  the  Christian  Church  ;  the  great  audiences 
are  gathered  in  the  temples  of  sin — tears  of  unuttera- 
ble woe  their  baptism,  the  blood  of  crushed  hearts 
the  awful  wine  of  their  sacrament,  blasphemies  their 
litany,  and  the  groans  of  the  lost  world  the  organ 
dirge  of  their  worship. 

Again,  if  you  want  to  be  qualified  to  meet  the 
duties  which  this  age  demands  of  you,  you  must  on 
the  one  hand  avoid  reckless  iconoclasm,  and  on  the 
other  hand  not  stick  too  much  to  things  because  they 
are  old.  The  air  is  full  of  new  plans,  new  projects, 
new  theories  of  government,  new  theologies,  and  I 
am  amazed  to  see  how  so  many  Christians  want  only 
novelty  in  order  to  recommend  a  thing  to  their  con- 
fidence ;  and  so  they  vacillate,  and  swing  to  and  fro, 
and  they  are  useless,  and  they  are  unhappy.  New 
plans — secular,  ethical,  philosophical,  religious,  cisat- 
lantac,  transatlantic — long  enough  to  make  a  line 
reaching  from  the  German  universities  to  Great  Salt 
Lake  City.  Ah,  my  brother,  do  not  take  hold  of  a 
thing  merely  because  it  is  new.  Try  it  by  the  reali- 
ties of  a  Judgment  Day. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  do  not  adhere  to  anything 


194  THE   DAY   WE    LIVE   IN. 

merely  because  it  is  old.  There  is  not  a  single  enter- 
prise of  the  Church  or  the  world  but  has  sometimes 
been  scoffed  at.  There  was  a  time  when  men  derided 
even  Bible  societies;  and  when  a  few  young  men 
met  near  a  haystack  in  Massachusetts  and  organized 
the  first  missionary  society  ever  organized  in  this 
country,  there  went  laughter  and  ridicule  all  around 
the  Christian  Church.  They  said  the  undertaking 
was  preposterous.  And  so  also  the  work  of  Jesus 
Christ  was  assailed.  People  cried  out :  ''  Who  ever 
heard  of  such  theories  of  ethics  and  government? 
Who  ever  noticed  such  a  style  of  preaching  as  Jesus 
has  ?  "  Ezekiel  had  talked  of  mysterious  wings  and 
wheels.  Here  came  a  man  from  Capernaum  and 
Gennesaret,  and  he  drew  his  illustrations  from  the 
lakes,  from  the  sand,  from  the  ravine,  from  the  lilies, 
from  the  cornstalks.  How  the  Pharisees  scoffed ! 
How  Herod  derided  !  How  Caiaphas  hissed.  And 
this  Jesus  they  plucked  by  the  beard,  and  they  spat 
in  his  face,  and  they  called  him  "  this  fellow  !"  All 
the  great  enterprises  in  and  out  of  the  Church  have 
at  times  been  scoffed  at,  and  there  have  been  a  great 
multitude  who  have  thought  that  the  chariot  of 
God's  truth  would  fall  to  pieces  if  it  once  got  out  of 
the  old  rut. 

And  so  there  are  those  who  have  no  patience  with 
anything  like  improvement  in  church  architecture, 
or  with  anything  like  good,  hearty,  earnest  church 
singing,  and  they  deride  any  form  of  religious  discus- 
sion which  goes  down  walking  among  everyday  men 
rather  than  that  which  makes  an  excursion  on  rhetor- 
ical stilts.  Oh,  that  the  Church  of  God  would  wake 
up  to  an  adaptability  of  work  !  We  must  admit  the 
simple  fact  that  the  churches  of  Jesus  Christ  in  this 


THE   DAY   WE   LIVE   IN.  IQ5 

day  do  not  reach  the  great  masses.  There  are  fifty 
thousand  people  in  Edinburgh  who  never  hear  the 
Gospel.  There  are  one  million  people  in  London 
who  never  hear  the  Gospel.  There  are  at  least  three 
hundred  thousand  souls  in  the  city  of  Brooklyn  who 
come  not  under  the  immediate  ministrations  of 
Christ's  truth,  and  the  Church  of  God  in  this  day, 
instead  of  being  a  place  full  of  living  epistles,  read 
and  known  of  all  men,  is  more  like  a  "  dead-letter  " 
postoffice. 

"But,"  say  the  people,  "the  world  is  going  to  be 
converted ;  you  must  be  patient ;  the  kingdoms  of 
this  world  are  to  become  the  kingdoms  of  Christ." 
Never,  unless  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  puts  on 
more  speed  and  energy.  Instead  of  the  Church  con- 
verting the  world,  the  world  is  converting  the 
Church.  Here  is  a  great  fortress.  How  shall  it  be 
taken?  An  army  comes  and  sits  around  about  it, 
cuts  off  the  supplies,  and  says ;  "  Now  we  will  just 
wait  until  from  exhaustion  and  starvation  they  will 
have  to  give  up."  Weeks  and  months,  and  perhaps 
a  year  pass  along,  and  finally  the  fortress  surrenders 
through  that  starvation  and  exhaustion.  But,  my 
friends,  the  fortresses  of  sin  are  never  to  be  taken  in 
that  way.  If  they  are  taken  for  God  it  will  be  by 
storm  ;  you  will  have  to  bring  up  the  great  siege 
guns  of  the  Gospel  to  the  very  wall  and  wheel  the 
flying  artillery  into  line,  and  when  the  armed  infantry 
of  heaven  shall  confront  the  battlements  you  will 
have  to  give  the  .quick  command,  "  Forward ! 
Charge !  " 

Ah,  my  friends,  there  is  work  for  you  to  do  and 
for  me  to  do  in  order  to  this  grand  accomplishment. 
Here  is  my  pulpit  and  I  preach  in  it.  Your  pulpit  is 


196  THE   DAY   WE    LIVE   IN. 

the  bank.  Your  pulpit  is  the  store.  Your  pulpit  is 
the  editorial  chair.  Your  pulpit  is  the  anvil.  Your 
pulpit  is  the  house  scaffolding.  Your  pulpit  is  the 
mechanic's  shop.  I  may  stand  in  this  place  and, 
through  cowardice  or  through  self-seeking,  may  keep 
back  the  word  I  ought  to  utter ;  while  you,  with 
sleeve  rolled  up  and  brow  besweated  with  toil,  may 
utter  the  word  that  will  jar  the  foundations  of  heaven 
with  the  shout  of  a  great  victory.  I  tell  you,  every 
one,  go  forth  and  preach  this  gospel.  You  have  as 
much  right  to  preach  as  I  have,  or  as  any  man  has. 
Only  find  out  the  pulpit  where  God  will  have  you 
preach  and  there  preach. 

Hedley  Vicars  was  a  wicked  man  in  the  English 
army.  The  grace  of  God  came  to  him.  He  became 
an  earnest  and  eminent  Christian.  They  scoffed  at 
him  and  said :  "  You  are  a  hypocrite  ;  you  are  as  bad 
as  ever  you  were."  Still  he  kept  his  faith  in  Christ, 
and  after  awhile,  finding  that  they  could  not  turn 
him  aside  by  calling  him  a  hypocrite,  they  said  to 
him  :  "Oh,  you  are  nothing  but  a  Methodist."  That 
did  not  disturb  him.  He  went  on  performing  his 
Christian  duty  until  he  had  formed  all  his  troop  into 
a  Bible  class,  and  the  whole  encampment  was  shaken 
with  the  presence  of  God.  So  Havelock  went  into 
the  heathen  temple  in  India  while  the  English  army 
was  there,  and  put  a  candle  into  the  hand  of  each  of 
the  heathen  gods  that  stood  around  in  the  heathen 
temple,  and  by  the  light  of  those  candles,  held  up  by 
the  idols,  General  Havelock  preached  righteousness, 
temperance,  and  judgment  to  come.  And  who  will 
say,  on  earth  or  in  heaven,  that  Havelock  had  not 
the  right  to  preach  ? 

In   the  minister's  house  where  1   prepared   for  col- 


THE   DAY   WE   LIVE   IN.  197 

lege  there  was  a  man  who  worked,  by  the  name  of 
Peter  Croy.  He  could  neither  read  nor  write,  but 
he  was  a  man  of  God.  Often  theologians  would  stop 
in  the  house — grave  theologians — and  at  family 
prayer  Peter  Croy  would  be  called  upon  to  lead  ; 
and  all  those  wise  men  sat  around,  wonder-struck  at 
his  religious  efficiency.  When  he  prayed  he  reached 
up  and  seemed  to  take  hold  of  the  very  throne  of  the 
Almighty,  and  he  talked  with  God  until  the  very 
heavens  were  bowed  down  into  the  sitting  room. 
Oh,  if  I  were  dying  I  would  rather  have  plain  Peter 
Croy  kneel  by  my  bedside  and  commend  my  immor- 
tal spirit  to  God  than  the  greatest  archbishop, 
arrayed  in  costly  canonicals.  Go  preach  this  Gospel. 
You  say  you  are  not  licensed.  In  the  name  of  the 
Lord  Almighty,  I  license  you.  Go  preach  this  Gos- 
pel— preach  it  in  the  Sabbath  schools,  in  the  prayer 
meetings,  in  the  highways,  in  the  hedges.  Woe  be 
unto  you  if  you  preach  it  not. 

Again,  in  order  to  be  qualified  to  meet  your  duty 
in  this  particular  age  you  want  unbounded  faith  in 
the  triumph  of  truth  and  the  overthrow  of  wicked- 
ness. How  dare  the  Christian  Church  ever  get  dis- 
couraged. Have  we  not  the  Lord  Almighty  on  our 
side  ?  How  long  did  it  take  God  to  slay  the  hosts  of 
Sennacherib  or  burn  Sodom,  or  shake  down  Jericho  ? 
How  long  will  it  take  God,  when  He  once  rises  in 
His  strength,  to  overthrow  all  the  forces  of  iniquity? 
Between  this  time  and  that  there  may  be  long  seasons 
of  darkness — the  chariot  wheels  of  God's  Gospel  may 
seem  to  drag  heavily,  but  here  is  the  promise  and 
yonder  is  the  throne ;  and  when  omniscience  has  lost 
its  eyesight,  and  omnipotence  falls  back  impotent, 
and  Jehovah  is  driven  from  His  throne,  then  the 


198  THE   DAY   WE   LIVE   IN. 

Church  of  Jesus  Christ  can  afford  to  be  despondent, 
but  never  until  then.  Despots  may  plan  and  armies 
may  march,  and  the  congresses  of  the  nations  may 
seem  to  think  they  are  adjusting  all  the  affairs  of  the 
world,  but  the  mighty  men  of  the  earth  are  only  the 
dust  of  the  chariot  wheels  of  God's  providence. 

I  think  before  the  sun  of  this  centurv  shall  set  the 
last  tyranny  will  fall,  and  with  a  splendor  of  demon- 
stration that  shall  be  the  astonishment  of  the  universe 
God  will  set  forth  the  brightness  and  pomp  and  glory 
and  perpetuity  of  His  eternal  government.  Out  of 
the  starr}'  flags  and  the  emblazoned  insignia  of  this 
world  God  will  make  a  path  for  His  own  triumph, 
and  returning  from  universal  conquest,  He  will  sit 
down,  the  grandest,  strongest,  highest  throne  of 
earth  His  footstool. 

Then  shall  all  nations'  song  ascend 
To  Thee,  our  Ruler,  Father,  Friend, 
Till  heaven's  high  arch  resounds  again 
With  "  Peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men." 

Hosts  of  the  living  God,  march  on!  march  on! 
His  spirit  will  bless  you.  His  shield  will  defend  you. 
His  sword  will  strike  for  you.  March  on  !  march  on ! 
The  despotisms  will  fall,  and  paganism  will  burn  its 
idols,  and  Mohammedanism  will  give  up  its  false 
prophet,  and  Judaism  will  confess  the  true  Messiah, 
and  the  great  walls  of  superstition  will  come  down  in 
thunder  and  wreck  at  the  long,  loud  blast  of  the  Gos- 
pel trumpet.  March  on  !  march  on !  The  besiegement 
will  soon  be  ended.  Only  a  few  more  steps  on  the 
long  way ;  only  a  few  more  sturdy  blows ;  only  a 
few  more  battle  cries,  then  God  will  put  the  laurel 
upon  your  brow,  and  from  the  living  fountains  of 


THE   DAY   WE   LIVE   IN.  199 

heaven  will  bathe  off  the  sweat  and  the  heat  and  the 
dust  of  the  conflict.  March  on  !  march  on !  For 
you  the  time  for  work  will  soon  be  passed,  and  amid 
the  out-flashings  of  the  judgment  throne,  and  the 
trumpeting  of  resurrection  angels,  and  the  upheaving 
of  a  world  of  graves,  and  the  hosanna  and  the  groan- 
ing of  the  saved  and  the  lost,  we  shall  be  rewarded 
for  our  faithfulness,  or  punished  for  our  stupidity. 
Blessed  be  the  Lord  God  of  Israel  from  everlasting 
to  everlasting,  and  let  the  whole  earth  be  filled  with 
His  glory. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE   OLD    FOLKS'    VISIT. 

Blessed  is  that  home  where  Christian  parents  come 
to  visit.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  style  of  the 
architecture  when  they  come,  it  is  a  palace  before 
they  leave.  If  they  visit  you  fifty  times,  the  two 
most  memorable  visits  will  be  the  first  and  the  last. 
Those  two  pictures  will  hang  in  the  hall  of  your 
memory  while  memory  lasts,  and  you  will  remember 
just  how  they  looked,  and  where  they  sat,  and  what 
they  said,  and  at  what  figure  of  the  carpet,  and  at 
what  doorsill  they  parted  with  you,  giving  you  the 
final  good-bye.  Do  not  be  embarrassed  if  your  father 
come  to  town  and  he  have  the  manners  of  the  shep- 
herd, and  if  your  mother  come  to  town,  and  there  be 
in  her  hat  no  sign  of  costly  millinery.  The  wife  of 
Emperor  Theodosius  said  a  wise  thing  when  she 
said:  "Husband,  remember  what  you  lately  were, 
and  remember  what  you  are,  and  be  thankful." 
"What  a  nuisance  it  is  to  have  poor  relations  !" 
Joseph  did  not  say  that,  but  he  rushed  out  to  meet 
his  father  with  perfect  abandon  of  affection  and 
brought  him  up  to  the  palace,  and  introduced  him  to 
the  Emperor,  and  provided  for  all  the  rest  of  the 
father's  day,  and  nothing  was  too  good  for  the  old 
man  while  living;  and  when  he  was  dead,  Joseph, 
with  military  escort,  took  his  father's  remains  to  the 
family  cemetery  at  Machpelah,  and  put  them  down 

200 


THE   OLD   FOLKS'   VISIT.  201 

beside   Rachel,   Joseph's  mother.      Would    God   all 
children  were  as  kind  to  their  parents  ! 

If  the  father  have  large  property,  and  he  be  wise 
enough  to  keep  it  in  his  own  name,  he  will  be  re- 
spected by  the  heirs ;  but  how  often  it  is  when  the 
son  finds  his  father  in  famine,  as  Joseph  found  Jacob 
in  famine,  the  young  people  make  it  very  hard  for 
the  old  man.  They  are  so  surprised  he  eats  with  a 
knife  instead  of  a  fork.  They  are  chagrined  at  his 
antediluvian  habits.  They  are  provoked  because  he 
can  not  hear  as  well  as  he  used  to,  and  when  he  asks 
it  over  again,  and  the  son  has  to  repeat  it,  he  bawls 
in  the  old  man's  ear:  "I  hope  you  hear  that!"  How 
long  he  must  wear  the  old  coat  or  the  old  hat  before 
they  get  him  a  new  one  !  How  chagrined  they  are 
at  his  independence  of  the  English  grammar  !  How 
long  he  hangs  on  !  Seventy  years  and  not  gone  yet ! 
Seventy-five  years  and  not  gone  yet !  Eighty  years 
and  not  gone  yet!  Will  he  ever 'go?  They  think  it 
of  no  use  to  have  a  doctor  in  his  last  sickness,  and  go 
up  to  the  drugstore  and  get  a  dose  of  something  that 
makes  him  worse,  and  economize  on  a  coffin,  and 
beat  the  undertaker  down  to  the  last  point,  giving  a 
note  for  the  reduced  amount,  which  they  never  pay  ! 
I  have  officiated  at  obsequies  of  aged  people  where 
the  family  have  been  so  inordinately  resigned  to  the 
Providence  that  I  felt  like  taking  my  text  from  Prov- 
erbs: "The  eye  that  mocketh  at  its  father,  and 
refuseth  to  obey  its  mother,  the  ravens  of  the  valley 
shall  pick  it  out,  and  the  young  eagles  shall  eat  it." 
In  other  words,  such  an  ingrate  ought  to  have  a  flock 
of  crows  for  pall-bearers !  I  congratulate  you  if  you 
have  the  honor  of  providing  for  aged  parents.  The 
blessing  of  the  Lord  God  of  Joseph  and  Jacob  will 
be  on  you. 


202  THE   OLD    FOLKS     VISIT. 

Share  your  successes  with  the  old  people.  The 
probability  is,  that  the  principles  they  inculcated 
achieved  your  fortune.  Give  them  a  Christian  per- 
centage of  kindly  consideration.  Let  Joseph  divide 
with  Jacob  the  pasture  fields  of  Goshen  and  the 
glories  of  the  Egyptian  court. 

And  here  I  would  like  to  sing  the  praises  of  the 
sisterhood  who  remained  unmarried  that  they  might 
administer  to  aged  parents.  The  brutal  world  calls 
these  self-sacrificing  ones  by  ungallant  names,  and 
says  they  are  peculiar  or  angular ;  but  if  you  had 
had  as  many  annoyances  as  they  have  had,  Xantippe 
would  have  been  an  angel  compared  with  you.  It  is 
easier  to  take  care  of  five  rollicking,  romping  chil- 
dren than  of  one  childish  old  man.  Among  the  best 
women  of  Brooklyn,  and  of  yonder  transpontive  city 
are  those  who  allowed  the  bloom  of  life  to  pass  away 
while  they  were  caring  for  their  parents.  While 
other  maidens  were  sound  asleep,  they  were  soaking 
the  old  man's  feet,  or  tucking  up  the  covers  around 
the  invalid  mother.  While  other  maidens  were  in 
the  cotillon,  they  were  dancing  attendance  upon 
rheumatism,  and  spreading  plasters  for  the  lame 
back  of  the  septenarian,  and  heating  catnip  tea  for 
insomnia. 

In  almost  every  circle  of  our  kindred  there  has 
been  some  queen  of  self-sacrifice  to  whom  jeweled 
hand  after  jeweled  hand  was  offered  in  marriage,  but 
who  staid  on  the  old  place  because  of  the  sense  of 
filial  obligation,  until  the  health  was  gone,  and  the 
attractiveness  of  personal  presence  had  vanished. 
Brutal  society  may  call  such  a  one  by  a  nickname. 
God  calls  her  daughter,  and  Heaven  calls  her  saint, 
and  I  call  her  domestic  martyr.  A  half-dozen  ordi- 


THE   OLD   FOLKS'   VISIT.  203 

nary  women  have  not  as  much  nobility  as  could  be 
found  in  the  smallest  joint  of  the  little  finger  of  her 
left  hand.  Although  the  world  has  stood  six  thou- 
sand years,  this  is  the  first  apotheosis  of  maidenhood, 
although  in  the  long  line  of  those  who  have  declined 
marriage  that  they  might  be  qualified  for  some 
especial  mission,  are  the  names  of  Anna  Ross,  and 
Margaret  Breckinridge,  and  Mary  Shelton,  and  Anna 
Etheridge,  and  Georgiana  Willetts,  the  angels  of  the 
battlefields  of  Fair  Oaks,  and  Lookout  Mountain, 
and  Chancellorsville,  and  Cooper  Shop  Hospital ; 
and  though  single  life  has  been  honored  by  the  fact 
that  the  three  grandest  men  of  the  Bible — John,  and 
Paul,  and  Christ — were  celibates. 

Let  the  ungrateful  world  sneer  at  the  maiden  aunt, 
but  God  has  a  throne  burnished  for  her  arrival,  and 
on  one  side  of  that  throne  in  heaven  there  is  a  vase 
containing  two  jewels,  the  one  brighter  than  the 
Kohinoor  of  London  Tower,  and  the  other  larger 
than  any  diamond  ever  found  in  the  districts  of  Gol- 
conda — the  one  jewel  by  the  lapidary  of  the  palace, 
cut  with  the  words :  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  to 
father ;  "  the  other  jewel  by  the  lapidary  of  the  pal- 
ace, cut  with  the  words  :  "Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  to 
mother." 

As  if  to  disgust  us  with  unfilial  conduct,  the  Bible 
presents  us  the  story  of  Micah,  who  stole  the  eleven 
hundred  shekels  from  his  mother,  and  the  story  of 
Absalom,  who  tried  to  dethrone  his  father.  But  all 
history  is  beautiful  with  stories  of  filial  fidelity. 
Epaminondas,  the  warrior,  found  his  chief  delight  in 
reciting  to  his  parents  his  victories.  There  goes 
^Eneas  from  burning  Troy,  on  his  shoulders,  Anch- 
ises,  his  father.  The  Athenians  punished  with  death 


204  THE   OLD   FOLKS     VISIT. 

any  unfilial  conduct.  There  goes  beautiful  Ruth 
escorting  venerable  Naomi  across  the  desert,  amid 
the  howling  of  the  wolves  and  the  barking  of  the 
jackals.  John  Lawrence  burned  at  the  stake  in  Col- 
chester, was  cheered  in  the  flames  by  his  children, 
who  said :  "O  God,  strengthen  thy  servant,  and 
keep  thy  promise  !"  And  Christ,  in  the  hour  of  ex- 
cruciation, provided  for  His  old  mother.  Jacob  kept 
his  resolution,  "  I  will  go  and  see  him  before  I  die," 
and  a  little  while  after,  we  find  them  walking  the 
tessellated  floor  of  the  palace,  Jacob  and  Joseph,  the 
prime-minister  proud  of  the  shepherd. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

ORDINARY    PEOPLE. 

"  Salute  Asvncritus,  Phlegon,  Hermas,  Patrobas,  Hermes,  Philo- 
logus  and  Julia" — ROMANS,  16:  14,  15. 

Matthew  Henry,  Albert  Barnes,  Adam  Clark, 
Thomas  Scott,  and  all  the  commentators  pass  by 
these  verses  without  any  especial  remark.  The 
other  twenty  people  mentioned  in  the  chapter  were 
distinguished  for  something,  and  were  therefore  dis- 
cussed by  the  illustrious  expositors ;  but  nothing  is 
said  about  Asyncritus,  Phlegon,  Hermas,  Patrobas, 
Hermes,  Philologus,  and  Julia.  Where  were  they 
born?  No  one  knows.  When  did  they  die?  There 
is  no  record  of  their  decease.  For  what  were  they 
distinguished?  Absolutely  for  nothing,  or  the  trait 
of  character  would  have  been  brought  out  by  the 
apostle.  If  they  had  been  very  intrepid,  or  opulent, 
or  hirsute,  or  musical  of  cadence,  or  crass  of  style,  or 
in  any  wise  anomalous,  that  feature  would  have  been 
caught  by  the  apostolic  camera.  But  they  were  good 
people,  because  Paul  sends  to  them  his  high  Chris- 
tian regards.  They  were  ordinary  people,  moving 
in  ordinary  sphere,  attending  to  ordinary  duty,  and 
meeting  ordinary  responsibilities. 

What  the  world  wants  is  a  religion  for  ordinary 
people.  If  there  be  in  the  United  States  55,000,000 
people,  there  are  certainly  not  more  than  1,000.000 
extraordinary ;  and  then  there  are  54,000,000  ordi- 

205 


206  ORDINARY    PEOPLE. 

nary,  and  we  do  well  to  turn  our  backs  for  a  little 
while  upon  the  distinguished  and  conspicuous  people 
of  the  Bible  and  consider  in  our  text  the  seven 
ordinary.  We  spend  too  much  of  our  time  in  twist- 
ing garlands  for  remarkables,  and  building  thrones 
for  magnates,  and  sculpturing  warriors,  and  apotheo- 
sizing philanthropists.  The  rank  and  tile  of  the 
Lord's  soldiery  need  especial  help. 

The  vast  majority  of  people  will  never  lead  an 
army,  will  never  .write  a  State  constitution,  will  never 
electrify  a  Senate,  will  never  make  an  important  in- 
vention, will  never  introduce  a  new  philosophy,  will 
never  decide  the  fate  of  a  nation.  You  do  not  expect 
to ;  you  do  not  want  to.  You  will  not  be  a  Moses  to 
lead  a  nation  out  of  bondage.  You  will  not  be  a 
Joshua  to  prolong  the  daylight  until  you  can  shut  five 
kings  in  a  cavern.  You  will  not  be  a  St.  John  to  un- 
roll an  Apocalypse.  You  will  not  be  a  Paul  to  pre- 
side over  an  apostolic  college.  You  will  not  be  a 
Mary  to  mother  a. Christ.  You  will  more  probably 
be  Asyncritus,  or  Fhlegon,  or  Hennas,  or  Patrobas, 
or  Hermes,  or  Philologus,  or  Julia. 

Many  of  you  are  women  at  the  head  of  households. 
Every  morning  you  plan  for  the  day.  The  culinary 
department  of  the  household  is  in  your  dominion. 
You  decide  all  questions  of  diet.  All  the  sanitary 
regulations  of  your  house  are  under  your  supervi- 
sion. To  regulate  the  food,  and  the  apparel,  and  the 
habits,  and  decide  the  thousand  questions  of  home 
life  is  a  tax  upon  brain  and  nerve  and  general  health 
absolutely  appalling,  if  there  be  no  divine  alleviation. 

It  does  not  help  you  much  to  be  told  that  Elizabeth 
Fry  did  wonderful  things  amid  the  criminals  at  New- 
gate. It  does  not  help  you  much  to  be  told  that  Mrs. 


ORDINARY    PEOPLE.  2O/ 

Judson  was  very  brave  among  the  Bornesian  canni- 
bals. It  does  not  help  you  very  much  to  be  told  that 
Florence  Nightingale  was  very  kind  to  the  wounded 
in  the  Crimea.  It  would  be  better  for  me  to  tell  you 
that  the  divine  friend  of  Marv  and  Martha  is  your 
friend,  and  that  He  sees  all  the  annoyances  and  dis- 
appointments, and  abrasions,  and  exasperations  of  an 
ordinary  housekeeper  from  morn  till  night,  and  from 
the  first  day  of  the  year  to  the  last  day  of  the  year, 
and  at  your  call  He  is  ready  with  help  and  rein- 
forcement. 

They  who  provide  the  food  of  the  world  decide 
the  health  of  the  world.  One  of  the  greatest  battles 
of  this  century  was  lost  because  the  commander  that 
morning  had  a  fit  of  indigestion.  You  have  only  to 
go  on  some  errand  .amid  the  taverns  and  the  hotels 
of  the  United  States  and  Great.  Britain  to  appreciate 
the  fact,  that  a  vast  multitude  of  the  human  race  are 
slaughtered  by  incompetent  cookery.  Though  a 
young  woman  may  have  taken  lessons  in  music,  and 
may  have  taken  lessons  in  painting,  and  lessons  in 
astronomy,  she  is  not  well  educated  unless  she  has 
taken  lessons  in  dougli!  They  who  decide  the  apparel 
of  the  world,  and  the  food  of  the  world,  decide  the 
endurance  of  the  world. 

An  unthinking  man  may  consider  it  a  matter  of 
little  importance — the  cares  of  the  household  and  the 
economies  of  domestic  life — but  I  tell  you  the  earth 
is  strewn  with  the  martyrs  of  kitchen  and  nursery. 
The  health-shattered  womanhood  of  America  cries 
out  for  a  God  who  can  help  ordinary  women  in  the 
ordinary  duties  of  housekeeping.  The  wearing, 
grinding,  unappreciated  work  goes  on,  but  the  same 
Christ  who  stood  on  the  bank  of  Galilee  in  the  early 


2O8  ORDINARY    PEOPLE. 

morning  and  kindled  the  fire  and  had  the  fish 
already  cleaned  and  broiling  when  the  sportsmen 
stepped  ashore,  chilled  and  hungry,  will  help  every 
woman  to  prepare  breakfast,  whether  by  her  own 
hand,  or  the  hand  of  her  hired  help.  The  God  who 
made  indestructible  eulogy  of  Hannah,  who  made  a 
coat  for  Samuel,  her  son,  and  carried  it  to  the  temple 
every  year,  will  help  every  woman  in  preparing  the 
family  wardrobe.  The  God  who  opens  the  Bible 
with  the  story  of  Abraham's  entertainment  by  the 
three  angels  on  the  plains  of  Mamre,  will  help  every 
woman  to  provide  hospitality,  however  rare  and  em- 
barrassing. It  is  high  time  that  some  of  the  attention 
we  have  been  giving  to  the  remarkable  women  of  the 
Bible — remarkable  for  their  virtue,  or  their  want  of 
it,  or  remarkable  for  their  deeds — Deborah  and  Jeze- 
bel, and  Herodias  and  Athalia,  and  Dorcas  and  the 
Marys,  excellent  and  abandoned — it  is  high  time  some 
of  the  attention  we  have  been  giving  to  these  con- 
spicuous women  of  the  Bible  be  given  to  Julia,  an 
ordinary  woman,  amid  ordinary  circumstances,  at- 
tending to  ordinary  duties,  and  meeting  ordinary 
responsibilities. 

Then  there  are  all  the  ordinary  business  men. 

They  need  divine  and  Christian  help.  When  we 
begin  to  talk  about  business  life  we  shoot  right  off 
and  talk  about  men  who  did  business  on  a  large  scale, 
and  who  sold  millions  of  dollars  of  goods  a  year ;  and 
the  vast  majority  of  business  men  do  not  sell  a  million 
dollars  of  goods,  nor  half  a  million,  nor  quarter  of  a 
million,  nor  the  eighth  part  of  a  million.  Put  all  the 
business  men  of  our  cities,  towns,  villages,  and  neigh- 
borhoods side  by  side,  and  you  will  find  that  they  sell 
less  than  fifty  thousand  dollars  worth  of  goods.  All 


ORDINARY    PEOPLE.  2OQ 

these  men  in  ordinary  business  liie  want  divine  help. 
You  see  how  the  wrinkles  are  printing  on  the  coun- 
tenance the  story  of  worriment  and  care.  You  can 
not  tell  how  old  a  business  man  is  by  looking  at  him. 
Gray  hairs  at  thirty.  A  man  at  forty-five  with  the 
stoop  of  a  nonogenarian.  No  time  to  attend  to  im- 
proved dentistry,  the  grinders  cease  because  they  are 
few.  Actually  dying  of  old  age  at  fort}7  or  fifty,  when 
they  ought  to  be  at  the  meridian.  Many  of  these 
business  men  have  bodies  like  a  neglected  clock  to 
which  you  come,  and  you  wind  it  up,  and  it  begins 
to  buzz  and  roar,  and  then  the  hands  start  around 
very  rapidly,  and  then  the  clock  strikes  five,  or  ten, 
or  forty,  and  strikes  without  any  sense,  and  then  sud- 
denly stops.  So  is  the  body  of  that  worn  out  busi- 
ness man.  It  is  a  neglected  clock,  and  though  by 
some  summer  recreation  it  may  be  wound  up,  still 
the  machinery  is  all  out  of  gear.  The  hands  turn 
around  with  a  velocity  that  excites  the  astonishment 
of  the  world.  Man  cannot  understand  the  wonderful 
activity,  and  there  is  a  roar,  and  a  buzz,  and  a  rattle 
about  these  disordered  lives,  and  they  strike  ten 
when  they  ought  to  strike  five,  and  they  strike  twelve 
when  they  ought  to  strike  six,  and  they  strike  forty 
when  they  ought  to  strike  nothing,  and  suddenly 
they  stop.  Post-mortem  examination  reveals  the 
fact  that  all  the  springs,  and  pivots,  and  weights,  and 
balance-wheels  of  health  are  completely  deranged. 
The  human  clock  is  simply  run  down.  And  at  the 
time  when  the  steady  hand  ought  to  be  pointing  to 
the  industrious  hours  on  a  clear  and  sunlit  dial,  the 
whole  machinery  of  body,  mind,  and  earthly  capacity 
stops  forever.  Greenwood  has  thousands  of  New 
York  and  Brooklyn  business  men  who  died  of  old 
age  at  thirty,  thirty-five,  forty,  forty-five. 


2IO  ORDINARY    PEOPLE. 

Now,  what  is  wanted  is  grace — divine  grace  for 
ordinary  business  men,  men  who  are  harnessed  from 
morn  till  night  and  all  the  days  of  their  life — har- 
nessed in  business.  Not  grace  to  lose  a  hundred 
thousand,  but  grace  to  lose  ten  dollars.  Not  grace 
to  supervise  two  hundred  and  fifty  employes  in  a  fac- 
torv,  but  grace  to  supervise  the  bookkeeper,  and  two 
salesmen,  and  the  small  boy  that  sweeps  out  the  store. 
Grace  to  invest  not  in  the  eighty  thousand  dollars  of 
net  profit,  but  the  twenty-five  hundred  of  clear  gain. 
Grace  not  to  endure  the  loss  of  a  whole  shipload  of 
spices  from  the  Indies,  but  grace  to  endure  the  loss 
of  a  paper  of  collars  from  the  leakage  of  a  displaced 
shingle  on  a  poor  roof.  Grace  not  to  endure  the 
tardiness  of  the  American  Congress  in  passing  a 
necessary  law,  but  grace  to  endure  the  tardiness  of 
an  errand  boy  stopping  to  play  marbles  when  he 
ought  to  deliver  the  goods.  Such  a  grace  as  thou- 
sands of  business  men  have  to-day — keeping  them 
tranquil,  whether  goods  sell  or  do  not  sell,  whether 
customers  pay  or  do  not  pay,  whether  tariff  is  up  or 
tariff  is  down,  whether  the  crops  are  luxuriant  or  a 
dead  failure — calm  in  all  circumstances,  and  amid  all 
vicissitudes.  That  is  the  kind  of  grace  we  want. 

Millions  of  men  want  it,  and  they  may  have  it  for 
the  asking.  Some  hero  or  heroine  comes  to  town,  and 
as  the  procession  passes  through  the  street  the  busi- 
ness men  come  out  and  stand  on  tiptoe  on  their  store 
step  and  look  at  some  one  who  in  Arctic  clime,  or  in 
ocean  storm,  or  in  day  of  battle,  or  in  hospital  agonies 
did  the  brave  thing,  not  realizing  that  they,  the  en- 
thusiastic spectators,  have  gone  through  trials  in 
business  life  that  are  just  as  great  before  God,  There 
are  men  who  have  gone  through  freezing  Arctics 


ORDINARY    PEOPLE.  211 

and  burning  torrids,  and  awful  Marengoes  of  experi- 
ences without  moving  five  miles  from  their  doorstep. 

Now,  what  ordinary  business  men  need  is  to  realize 
that  they  have  the  friendship  of  that  Christ  who 
looked  after  the  religious  interests  of  Matthew,  the 
custom-house  clerk,  and  helped  Lydia,  of  Thyatira, 
to  sell  the  dry  goods,  and  who  opened  a  bakery  and 
fish-market  in  the  wilderness  of  Asia  Minor  to  feed 
the  seven  thousand  who  had  come  out  on  a  religious 
picnic,  and  who  counts  the  hairs  of  your  head  with  as 
much  particularity  as  though  they  were  the  plumes 
of  a  coronation,  and  who  took  the  trouble  to  stoop 
down  with  His  finger  writing  on  the  ground,  although 
the  first  shuffle  of  feet  obliterated  the  divine  cali- 
graphy,  and  who  knows  just  how  many  locusts  there 
were  in  the  Egyptian  plague,  and  knew  just  how 
many  ravens  were  necessary  to  supply  Elijah's  pantry 
by  the  brook  Cherith,  and  who,  as  floral  commander, 
leads  forth  all  the  regiments  of  primroses,  foxgloves, 
daffodils,  hyacinths,  and  lilies  which  pitch  their  tents 
of  beauty  and  kindle  their  camp-fires  of  color  all 
around  the  hemisphere — that  that  Christ  and  that 
God  knows  the  most  minute  affairs  of  your  business 
life  and  however  inconsiderable,  understanding  all 
the  affairs  of  that  woman  who  keeps  a  thread-and- 
needle  store  as  well  as  all  the  affairs  of  a  Rothschild 
and  a  Baring. 

Then  there  are  all  the  ordinary  farmers.  We  talk 
about  agricultural  life,  and  we  immediately  shoot  off 
to  talk  about  Cincinnatus,  the  patrician,  who  went 
from  the  plow  to  a  high  position,  and  after  he  got 
through  the  dictatorship,  in  twenty-one  days  went 
back  again  to  the  plow.  What  encouragement  is  that 
to  ordinary  farmers  ?  The  vast  majority  of  them — none 


212  ORDINARY    PEOPLE. 

of  them  will  be  patricians.  Perhaps  none  of  them 
will  be  Senators.  If  any  of  them  have  dictatorships 
it  will  be  over  forty,  or  fifty,  or  a  hundred  acres  of 
the  old  homestead.  What  those  men  want  is  grace, 
to  keep  their  patience  while  plowing  with  balky 
oxen,  and  to  keep  cheerful  amid  the  drouth  that  de- 
stroys the  corn  crop,  and  that  enables  them  to  restore 
the  garden  the  day  after  the  neighbor's  cattle  have 
broken  in  and  trampled  out  the  strawberry  bed,  and 
gone  through  the  Lima-bean  patch,  and  eaten  up  the 
sweet  corn  in  such  large  quantities  that  they  must  be 
kept  from  the  water  lest  they  swell  up  and  die. 

Grace  in  catching  weather  that  enables  them,  with- 
out imprecation,  to  spread  out  the  hay  the  third  time, 
although  again,  and  again,  and  again,  it  has  been  al 
most  ready  for  the  mow.  A  grace  to  doctor  the  cow 
with  a  hollow  horn,  and  the  sheep  with  the  foot  rot, 
and  the  horse  with  the  distemper,  and  to  compel  the 
unwilling  acres  to  yield  a  livelihood  for  the  family, 
and  schooling  for  the  children,  and  little  extras  to 
help  the  older  boy  in  business,  and  something  for  the 
daughter's  wedding  outfit,  and  a  little  surplus  for  the 
time  when  the  ankles  will  get  stiff  with  age,  and  the 
breath  will  be  a  little  short,  and  the  swinging  of  the 
cradle  through  the  hot  harvest-field  will  bring  on  the 
old  man's  vertigo.  Better  close  up  about  Cincin- 
natus.  I  know  five  hundred  farmers  just  as  noble  as 
he  was. 

What  they  want  is  to  know  that  they  have  the 
friendship  of  that  Christ  who  often  drew  His  similes 
from  the  farmer's  life,  as  when  he  said  :  "  A  sower 
went  forth  to  sow  ;"  as  when  He  built  His  best  para- 
ble out  of  the  scene  of  a  farmer's  boy  coming  back 
from  his  wanderings,  and  the  old  farmhouse  shook 


ORDINARY    PEOPLE.  213 

that  night  with  rural  jubilee ;  and  who  compared 
Himself  to  a  lamb  in  the  pasture  field,  and  who  said 
that  the  eternal  God  is  a  farmer,  declaring :  "  My 
Father  is  the  husbandman." 

Those  stone  masons  do  not  want  to  hear  about 
Christopher  Wren,  the  architect,  who  built  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral.  It  would  be  better  to  tell  them  how  to 
carry  the  hod  of  brick  up  the  ladder  without  slipping, 
and  how  on  a  cold  morning  with  the  trowel  to 
smooth  off  the  mortar  and  keep  cheerful,  and  how  to 
be  thankful  to  God  for  the  plain  food  taken  from  the 
pail  by  the  roadside.  Carpenters  standing  amid  the 
adze,  and  the  bit,  and  the  plane,  and  the  broad  axe, 
need  to  be  told  that  Christ  was  a  carpenter,  with  his 
own  hand  wielding  saw  and  hammer.  Oh,  this  is  a 
tired  world,  and  it  is  an  overworked  world,  and  it  is 
an  under-fed  world,  and  it  is  a  rung-out  world,  and 
men  and  women  need  to  know  that  there  is  rest  and 
recuperation  in  God  and  in  that  religion  which  was 
not  so  much  intended  for  extraordinary  people  as  for 
ordinary  people,  because  there  are  more  of  them. 

The  healing  profession  has  had  its  Abercrombies, 
and  its  Abernethys,  and  its  Valentine  Motts,  and  its 
Willard  Parkers ;  but  the  ordinary  physicians  do  the 
most  of  the  world's  medicining,  and  they  need  to  un- 
derstand that  while  taking  diagnosis  or  prognosis,  or 
writing  prescription,  or  compounding  medicament, 
or  holding  the  delicate  pulse  of  a  dying  child  they 
may  have  the  presence  and  the  dictation  of  the 
Almighty  Doctor  who  took  the  case  of  the  madman, 
and,  after  he  had  torn  off  his  garments  in  foaming  de- 
mentia, clothed  him  again,  body  and  mind,  and  who 
lifted  up  the  woman  who  for  eighteen  years  had  been 
bent  almost  double  with  the  rheumatism  into  grace- 


214  ORDINARY    PEOPLE. 

ful  stature,  and  who  turned  the  scabs  of  leprosy  into 
rubicund  complexion,  and  who  rubbed  the  numbness 
out  of  paralysis,  and  who  swung  wide  open  the 
closed  windows  of  hereditary  or  accidental  blindness, 
until  the  morning  light  came  streaming  through  the 
fleshly  casements,  and  who  knows  all  the  diseases, 
and  all  the  remedies,  and  all  the  herbs,  and  all  the 
catholicons,  and  is  monarch  of  pharmacy  and  thera- 
peutics, and  who  has  sent  out  ten  thousand  doctors 
of  whom  the  world  makes  no  record  ;  but  to  prove 
that  they  are  angels  of  mercy,  I  invoke  the  thousands 
of  men  whose  ailments  they  have  assuaged  and  the 
thousands  of  women  to  whom  in  crises  of  pain  they 
have  been  next  to  God  in  benefaction. 

Come',  now,  let  us  have  a  religion  for  ordinary  peo- 
ple in  professions,  in  occupations,  in  agriculture,  in 
the  household,  in  merchandise,  in  everything.  I 
salute  across  the  centuries  Asyncritus,  Phlegon,  Her- 
nias, Patrobas,  Hermes,  Philologus,  and  Julia. 

First  of  all,  if  you  feel  that  you  are  ordinary,  thank 
God  that  you  are  not  extraordinary.  I  am  tired  and 
sick,  and  bored  almost  to  death  with  extraordinary 
people.  They  take  all  their  time  to  tell  us  how  very 
extraordinary  they  really  are.  You  know  as  well  as  I 
do,  my  brother  and  sister,  that  the  most  of  the  useful 
work  of  the  world  is  done  by  unpretentious  people 
who  toil  right  on — by  people  who  do  not  get  much  ap- 
proval, and  no  one  seems  to  say,  "  That  is  well  done." 
Phenomena  are  of  but  little  use.  Things  that  are  ex- 
ceptional cannot  be  depended  on.  Better  trust  the 
smallest  planet  that  swings  in  its  orbit  than  ten 
comets  shooting  this  way  and  that,  imperilling  the 
longevity  of  worlds  attending  to  their  own  business. 
For  steady  illumination  better  is  a  lamp  than  a  rocket. 


ORDINARY   PEOPLE.  215 

Then,  if  you  feel  that  you  are  ordinary,  remember 
that  your  position  invites  the  less  attack.  Conspicu- 
ous people — how  they  have  to  take  it!  How  they 
are  misrepresented,  and  abused,  and  shot  at!  The 
higher  the  horns  of  a  roebuck  the  easier  to  track  him 
down.  What  a  delicious  thing  it  must  be  to  be  a 
candidate  for  President  of  the  United  States  !  It 
must  be  so  soothing  to  the  nerves !  It  must  pour 
into  the  souls  of  a  candidate  such  a  sense  of  serenity 
when  he  reads  the  blessed  newspapers ! 

I  came  into  the  possession  of  the  abusive  cartoons 
in  the  time  of  Napoleon  I.,  printed  while  he  was  yet 
alive.  The  retreat  of  the  army  from  Moscow,  that 
army  buried  in  the  snows  of  Russia,  one  of  the  most 
awful  tragedies  of  the  centuries,  represented  under 
the  figure  of  a  monster  called  General  Frost  shaving 
the  French  Emperor  with  a  razor  oi  icicle.  As  Satyr 
and  Beelzebub  he  is  represented,  page  after  page, 
page  after  page.  England  cursing  him,  Spain  curs- 
ing him,  Germany  cursing  him,  Russia  cursing  him, 
Europe  cursing  him,  North  and  South  America  curs- 
ing him.  The  most  remarkable  man  of  his  day,  and 
the  most  abused.  All  those  men  in  history  who  now 
have  a  halo  around  their  name,  on  earth  wore  a 
crown  of  thorns.  Take  the  few  extraordinary  rail- 
road men  of  our  time,  and  see  what  abuse  comes  upon 
them,  while  thousands  of  stockholders  escape.  New 
York  Central  Railroad  has  9,265  stockholders.  If 
anything  in  that  railroad  affronts  the  people  all  the 
abuse  comes  down  on  one  man,  and  the  9,264  escape. 
All  the  world  took  after  Thomas  Scott,  President  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  abused  him  until  he  got 
under  the  ground.  Over  17,000  stockholders  in  that 
company.  All  the  blame  on  one  man  !  The  Central 


2l6  ORDINARY    PEOPLE. 

Pacific  Railroad — two  or  three  men  get  all  the  blame 
if  anything  goes  wrong.  There  are  10,000  in  that 
company. 

I  mention  these  things  to  prove  it  is  extraordinary 
people  who  get  abused,  while  the  ordinary  escape. 
The  weather  of  life  is  not  so  severe  on  the  plain  as  it 
is  on  the  high  peaks.  The  world  never  forgives  a 
man  who  knows,  or  gains,  or  does  more  than  it  can 
know,  or  gain,  or  do.  Parents  sometimes  give  con- 
fectionery to  their  children  as  an  inducement  to  take 
bitter  medicine,  and  the  world's  sugar-plum  precedes 
the  world's  aqua-fort  is.  The  mob  cried  in  regard  to 
Christ,  '•  Crucify  Him,  crucify  Him !"  and  they  had 
to  say  it  twice  to  be  understood,  for  they  were  so 
hoarse,  and  they  got  their  hoarseness  by  crying  a 
little  while  before  at  the  top  of  their  voice,  "Hosanna." 
The  river  Rhone  is  foul  when  it  enters  Lake  Leman, 
but  crystalline  when  it  comes  out  on  the  other  side. 
But  there  are  men  who  have  entered  the  bright  lake 
of  wordly  prosperity  crystalline  and  came  out  terribly 
riled.  If,  therefore,  you  feel  that  you  are  ordinary, 
thank  God  for  the  defences  and  the  tranquility  of 
your  position. 

Let  us  all  be  content  with  such  things  as  we  have. 
God  is  just  as  good  in  what  He  keeps  away  from  us 
as  in.  what  he  gives  us.  Even  a  knot  may  be  useful 
if  it  is  at  the  end  of  a  thread. 

At  an  anniversary  of  a  deaf  and  dumb  asylum,  one 
of  the  children  wrote  upon  the  blackboard  words  as 
sublime  as  the  Iliad,  the  Odyssey,  and  the  "  Divina 
Comedia "  all  compressed  in  one  paragraph.  The 
examiner,  in  the  signs  of  the  mute  language,  asked 
her:  "  Who  made  the  world?"  The  deaf  and  dumb 
girl  wrote  upon  the  blackboard,  "  In  the  beginning 


ORDINARY   PEOPLE.  2 17 

God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth."  The  ex- 
aminer asked  her,  "  For  what  purpose  did  Christ 
come  into  the  world  ? "  The  deaf  and  dumb  girl 
wrote  upon  the  blackboard  :  "  This  is  a  faithful  say- 
ing, and  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  Christ  Jesus 
came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners."  The  ex- 
aminer said  to  her,  "  Why  were  you  born  deaf  and 
dumb,  while  I  hear  and  speak?"  She  wrote  upon 
the  blackboard  :  "  Even  so,  Father ;  for  so  it  seemeth 
good  in  thy  sight."  Oh,  that  we  might  be  baptized 
with  a  contented  spirit !  The  spider  draws  poison 
out  of  a  flower,  the  bee  gets  honey  out  of  a  thistle; 
but  happiness  is  a  heavenly  elixir,  and  the  contented 
spirit  extracts  it,  not  from  the  rhododendron  of  the 
hills,  but  from  the  lily  of  the  valley. 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

THE   LACHRYMAL. 

Within  the  past  century  travelers  and  antiquarians 
have  explored  the  ruins  of  ancient  cities,  and  from  the 
very  heart  of  the  buried  splendor  they  have  brought 
up  evidence  of  customs  long  ago  vanished  from  the 
earth.  From  some  of  those  tombs  they  have  brought 
up  lachrymatories,  or  lachrymals,  which  are  vials 
made  of  earthenware.  The  tears  wept  over  the  dead 
were  caught  and  kept  in  this  vial,  or  lachrymatory 
or  lachrymal,  or  bottle,  and  then  the  bottle  was 
placed  in  the  tomb  of  the  dead.  There  are  in  our 
museums  to-day,  if  you  will  search  for  them,  many 
specimens  of  these  tear-bottles  of  olden  times. 

The  tears  that  were  brought  up  in  the  lachrymals 
of  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii  have  all  gone,  and 
those  bottles  are  as  dry  as  the  scoria  of  the  volcano 
that,  submerged  them  ;  but  not  so  with  the  bottle  in 
which  God  gathers  all  our  tears.  So  it  is  not  a  mere 
soft  sentiment,  it  is  not  only  a  poetic  idea,  but  it  is  a 
deep  and  an  earnest  expression  of  hundreds  of  people 
here  who  have  had  misfortune,  or  trial,  or  loss,  or  be- 
reavement, when  they  cry  out,  saying :  "  Put  thou 
my  tears  into  thy  bottle." 

You  have  all  heard  of  the  story  of  paradise  and  the 
peri.  I  think  it  might  come  to  a  better  adaptation. 
An  angel  went  forth  from  heaven,  and  searched  all 
the  earth  to  find  some  beautiful  thing  worth}'  of  celes- 

218 


THE    LACHRYMAL.  22I 

tial  transportation.  That  angel  went  down  to  the 
gold  and  silver  mines  of  the  earth,  yet  found  nothing 
worthy  of  carrying  back  to  God  and  to  heaven.  And 
then  the  angel  went  down  to  the  depths  of  the  sea, 
and  examined  all  the  pearls  that  lay  there,  but  not 
one  of  them  was  fit  to  take  to  heaven,  and  the  angel, 
utterly  discouraged  and  despairing,  stood  at  the  foot 
of  a  mountain  and  folded  its  wing,  when,  looking  a 
little  way  off,  it  saw  a  wanderer  weeping  over  his  evil 
ways,  and  as  the  tears  were  falling  down  the  cheek  of 
that  wanderer  the  angel  thrust  its  wing  under  the  fall- 
ing tear  and  captured  it,  and  then  sped  away  toward 
the  sky,  and  as  God  saw  the  angel  flying  heavenward 
with  that  tear  upon  the  wing,  God  cried  out ;  "  Be- 
hold the  brightest  jewel  of  heaven,  the  tear  of  a  sin- 
ner's repentance." 

Oh,  when  I  see  the  shepherd  bringing  a  lost  sheep 
back  from  the  wilderness,  when  I  hear  the  quick  tread 
of  a  ragged  prodigal  coming  to  his  father's  house, 
when  I  see  the  sin  burned,  and  the  passion  blasted, 
and  the  wretched  and  the  vile  appealing  for  God's 
compassion,  then  I  break  forth  into  ecstasy  and  tri- 
umph, and  I  cry  :  "  More  tears  for  God's  bottle  !  "  I 
remember  only  one  or  two  lines  of  the  old  hymn 
which  says : 

"  Or  sins  like  mountains  for  their  size, 
The  seas  of  sovereign  grace  expand; 
The  seas  of  sovereign  grace  arise." 

O  wanderer,  come  back  to  thy  God.  That  falling 
tear  will  not  drop  on  the  cheek,  it  will  not  drop  on 
your  hand ;  it  will  drop  into  the  bottle  where  God 
keeps  all  our  tears.  God  has  an  intimate  acquaint 
ance  with  and  a  tender  remembrance  of  all  poverty. 
Much  cf  the  world's  want  does  not  come  to  inspec 


222  THE   LACHRYMAL. 

tion.  Deacons  of  the  church  do  not  see  it,  controllers 
of  almshouses  never  report  it.  People  who  prefer  to 
suffer  and  to  die  in  silence  rather  than  to  display 
their  poverty  and  their  bitterness.  Parents  who  fail 
to  get  a  livelihood  so  that  they  with  their  children 
dwell  in  perpetual  privation.  Sewing  women  who 
cannot  ply  the  needle  fast  enough  to  earn  shelter  and 
bread. 

Sorrow  and  privation  and  woe  huger  than  a  camel 
going  through  the  eye  of  their  needle.  But  whether 
reported  or  uncomplaining,  whether  in  seemingly 
comfortable  parlor  or  in  damp  cellar,  or  in  hot  gar- 
ret, the  angels  of  God  watch.  All  those  griefs  are 
being  collected.  Down  on  the  back  street,  away  off 
amid  shanties  and  log  huts,  angels  of  God  are  watch- 
ing. Tears  of  want  seething  in  summer's  heat,  tears 
of  want  freezing  in  winter's  cold,  fall  not  unheeded. 
They  are  jewels  in  heaven's  casket.  They  arc 
pledges  of  divine  sympathy.  They  are  tears  for 
God's  bottle. 

When  some  years  ago  a  city  missionary  was  cross- 
ing one  of  the  parks  in  New  York  on  the  Sabbath 
day,  he  said  to  a  lad,  "  What  are  you  doing  here, 
breaking  the  Lord's  day  ?  You  ought  to  be  at  church 
and  worshiping  God  instead  of  breaking  the  Sabbath 
in  this  way."  Then  the  poor  lad  in  his  rags  looked 
up  at  the  city  missionary,  and  said :  "  Oh,  sir,  it's  very 
easy  for  you  to  talk  that  way,  but  God  knows  that 
we  poor  chaps  ain't  got  no  chance."  Oh,  that  the 
tears  of  all  the  poor  might  drop  into  God's  bottle. 

God  has  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  and  a  ten- 
der remembrance  of,  all  our  parental  anxiety.  You 
sometimes  see  a  man  step  right  out  from  the  most  in- 
famous surroundings  into  the  kingdom  of  God.  You 


THE   LACHRYMAL.  223 

say,  "  That  is  not  logical ;  that  man  has  not  heard  a 
sermon  in  twenty  years ;  that  man  has  not  had  any 
alarming  providence  ;  why  is  it  he  steps  right  out 
from  the  most  debased  surroundings  into  the  king- 
dom of  God  ?"  This  is  the  secret :  God  one  day  looks 
at  the  bottle  in  which  He  keeps  the  tears  of  His  dear 
children,  and  He  finds  there  a  parental  tear  which  for 
forty  years  has  been  unanswered,  and  He  says,  "  Go 
to  now,  and  I  will  answer  that  tear."  Quick  as  light- 
ning to  the  heart  of  that  debased  and  wandering  man 
comes  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  he  steps 
out  of  his  sin  into  the  light  of  the  Gospel. 

Oh,  this  work  of  training  children  for  God  and  for 
heaven  is  a  tremendous  work.  I  know  there  are  a 
great  many  people  who  have  not  been  called  to  pa- 
rental responsibility,  who  have  a  very  complete  idea 
about  domestic  discipline.  They  know  how  children 
ought  to  be  trained !  But  to  every  intelligent  parent 
it  is  a  tremendous  question. 

Now  there  is  a  little  child,  and  it  is  a  beautiful  play- 
thing. It  lies  in  the  mother's  arms.  She  looks  down 
into  the  bright  eyes,  and  she  examines  the  dimples  on 
its  feet,  and  she  says :  "  What  an  exquisite  organ- 
ism." Beautiful  plaything  that  child  is.  But  one 
night  while  that  mother  is  rocking  that  child  to  sleep 
a  voice  drops  straight  from  the  throne  of  God,  say- 
iag :  "  Do  you  know  what  you  are  rocking?  That 
is  an  immortal."  Stars  shall  die,  but  that  is  an  im- 
mortal. The  sun  will  die  of  old  age,  but  that  is 
immortal. 

With  some  of  you  this  is  the  chief  anxiety.  You 
try  to  train  your  children  aright.  You  correct  this 
folly,  you  chide  that  worldliness,  and  your  midnight 
pillow  is  wet  with  weeping  in  parental  anxiety ;  and 


224  THE   LACHRYMAL. 

you  ask  me  to-day,  you  ask  me  in  silence,  but  I  hear 
the  question  coming  up  from  hundreds  of  souls  :  "  Is 
all  this  wasted  ?  Are  my  prayers  going  to  be  heard  ? 
Is  all  this  solicitude  for  nothing?"  I  answer  no. 
God  has  counted  all  the  sleepless  nights.  God  has 
heard  all  the  counsels  you  ever  gave  to  that  boy  or 
that  girl  in  your  household.  God  knows  it  all,  and 
He  has  kept  a  record,  and  in  lachrymal — not  such  as 
is  taken  up  from  ancient  sepulchre,  but  in  a  lachry- 
mal that  stands  on  His  eternal  throne,  He  has  gath- 
ered all  those  exhausting  tears. 

The  grass  may  be  rank  on  your  grave,  and  the  let- 
ters may  have  faded  from  the  tombstone  under  the 
dash  of  the  elements,  but  He  who  has  said,  *'  I  will  be 
a  God  to  thee  and  to  thy  seed  after  thee,"  will  not 
forget,  and  some  day  in  heaven,  while  you  are  rang- 
ing the  fields  of  light,  the  gates  of  pearl  will  open, 
and  garlanded  with  glory  that  wanderer  will  rush 
into  your  outstretched  arms  of  welcome  and  triumph. 
The  hills  may  depart,  and  the  stars  may  fall,  and  the 
world  may  burn,  and  time  may  perish,  but  God  will 
break  His  oath — never,  never! 

But  you  say,  "  Why  keep  in  heaven  the  tears  of 
earth  ?  whv  that  great  lachrymatory  on  the  throne  of 
God  ?"  Well,  my  friends,  I  do  not  know  that  the  tears 
will  always  stay  there.  I  do  not  know  but  that  after 
a  while  some  angel  passing  along  will  look  at  that  great 
lachrymatory  of  heaven  and  find  it  empty.  What 
sprite  of  hell  hath  broken  into  the  gates  and  robbed 
that  place  of  its  jewels?  This  is  the  secret :  Those 
were  sanctified  sorrows,  and  those  tears  have  been 
changed  into  pearl,  and  now  they  adorn  the  coronets 
and  the  robes  of  the  ransomed. 

I  take 'up  some  coronet  of  light  and  I  see  gems 


THE   LACHRYMAL.  225 

sparkling  in  it,  and  say,  "From  what  river  depth  of 
heaven  did  these  jewels  come  ? "  and  a  thousand 
voices  answer:  "These  are  the  transmuted  tears 
from  God's  bottle."  Then  I  see  a  scepter  stretched 
down  from  the  throne  of  men  who  were  trodden  on 
by  earth,  and  I  see  on  every  scepter  point,  and  I  see 
inlaid  in  the  ivory  stair  of  the  golden  throne  some 
very  bright  jewels,  and  I  say,  "  Whence  came  they? 
whence  came  they  ?  "  and  the  elders  from  before  the 
throne,  and  the  martyrs  under  the  altar  coming  up 
and  standing  on'  the  sea  of  glass,  cry  in  ecstasy, 
"  These  are  the  transmuted  tears  from  God's  bottle." 
Let  the  ages  of  heaven  roll  on.  All  the  pomp  and 
pride  of  earth  forgotten  ;  the  Koh-i-noor  diamonds 
that  were  the  pride  of  kings  forgotten ;  precious 
stones  that  adorned  Persian  tiara  or  flamed  in  the 
robes  of  Babylonian  processions,  forgotten  ;  the  Gol- 
conda  mines  charred  in  the  last  conflagration ;  but 
firm  as  the  everlasting  hills,  and  pure  as  the  light 
that  streams  from  the  throne,  and  bright  as  the  river 
that  flows  from  under  the  eternal  rocks,  are  the  trans- 
muted tears  from  God's  bottle.  Let  that  empty 
lachrymatory  stand  forever  on  the  steps  of  heaven, 
on  the  steps  of  the  throne.  Let  no  hand  touch  it.' 
Let  no  wing  strike  it.  Let  no  collision  crack  it. 
Purer  than  beryl  or  chrysoprasus,  let  it  stand  on  the 
steps  of  Jehovah's  throne,  and  under  the  arch  of  the 
unfading  rainbow.  Passing  down  the  corridors  of 
the  palace,  the  redeemed  of  earth  will  look  at  it,  and 
think  of  their  earthly  sorrows  sanctified,  and  say, 
"Why,  that  is  what  we  heard  of  on  earth;  that  is 
what  the  Psalmist  spoke  of  ;  there  is  where  our  tears 
were  kept;  that  is  God's  bottle."  And  while  the 
redeemed  of  heaven  are  gazing  on  this  richest  inlaid 


2_6  THE   LACHRYMAL. 

vase  in  glory,  all  the  towers  of  heaven  will  strike  this 
silvery  chime :  "  God  hath  wiped  away  all  tears  from 
all  faces.  God  hath  wiped  away  all  tears  from  all 
faces." 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

SUNSET. 

It  is  a  dismal  thing  to  be  getting  old  without  the 
rejuvenating  influence  of  religion.  When  we  step  on 
the  down  grade  of  life  and  see  that  it  dips  to  the 
verge  of  the  cold  river,  we  want  to  behold  some  one 
near  who  will  help  us  across  it.  When  the  sight 
loses  its  power  to  glance  and  gather  up,  we  need  the 
faith  that  can  illumine.  When  we  feel  the  failure  of 
the  ear,  we  need  the  clear  tones  of  that  voice  which 
in  olden  times  broke  up  the  silence  of  the  deep  with 
cadences  of  mercy.  When  the  axe-men  of  death 
hew  down  whole  forests  of  strength  and  beauty 
around  us  and  we  are  left  in  solitude,  we  need  the 
dove  of  divine  mercy  to  sing  in  our  branches.  When 
the  shadows  tfegin  to  fall  and  we  feel  that  the  day  is 
far  spent,  we  need  most  of  all  to  supplicate  the 
strong,  beneficent  Jesus  in  the  prayer  of  the  villagers, 
"Abide  with  us,  for  it  is  toward  evening." 

The  request  is  an  appropriate  exclamation  for  all 
those  who  are  approached  in  the  gloomy  hour  of 
temptation.  There  is  nothing  easier  than  to  be  good- 
natured  when  everything  pleases,  or  to  be  humble 
when  there  is  nothing  to  oppose  us,  or  forgiving 
when  we  have  not  been  assailed,  or  honest  when  we 
have  no  inducement  to  fraud.  But  you  have  felt  the 
grapple  of  some  temptation.  Your  nature  at  some 
time  quaked  and  groaned  under  the  infernal  force. 

227 


228  SUNSET. 

You  felt  that  the  devil  was  after  you.  You  saw 
your  Christian  graces  retreating.  You  feared  that 
you  would  fail  in  the  awful  wrestle  with  sin  and  be 
thrown  into  the  dust.  The  gloom  thickened.  The 
first  indications  of  the  night  were  seen.  In  all  the 
trembling  of  your  soul,  in  all  the  infernal  suggestions 
of  Satan,  in  all  the  surging  up  of  tumultuous  passions 
and  excitements,  you  felt  with  awful  emphasis  that  it 
was  toward  evening. 

In  the  tempted  hour  you  need  to  ask  Jesus  to  abide 
with  vou.  You  can  beat  back  the  monster  that 
would  devour  you.  You  can  unhorse  the  sin  that 
would  ride  you  down.  You  can  sharpen  the  battle- 
axe  with  which  you  split  the  head  of  helmeted  abom- 
ination. Who  helped  Paul  shake  the  brazen-gated 
heart  of  Felix  ?  Who  acted  like  a  good  sailor  when 
all  the  crew  howled  in  the  Mediterranean  shipwreck? 
Who  helped  the  martyrs  to  be  firm,  when  one  word 
of  recantation  would  have  unfastened  the  withes  of 
the  stake  and  put  out  the  kindling  fire  ?  When  the 
night  of  the  soul  came  on  and  all  the  denizens  of 
darkness  came  riding  upon  the  winds  of  perdition— 
who  gave  strength  to  the  soul  ?  Who  gave  calmness 
to  the  heart?  Who  broke  the  spell  of  infernal 
enchantment?  He  who  heard  the  request  of  the  vil- 
lagers :  "  Abide  with  us  for  it  is  toward  evening." 

One  of  the  forts  of  France  was  attacked  and  the 
outworks  were  taken  before  night.  The  besieging 
army  lay  down,  thinking  that  there  was  but  little  to 
do  in  the  morning,  and  that  the  soldiery  in  the  fort 
could  be  easily  made  to  surrender.  But  during  the 
night,  through  a  back  stairs,  they  escaped  into  the 
country.  In  the  morning  the  besieging  army  sprang 
upon  the  battlements,  but  found  that  their  prey  was 


SUNSET.  229 

gone.  So  when  we  are  assaulted  in  temptation,  there 
is  always  some  secret  stair  by  which  we  might  get 
off.  God  will  not  allow  us  to  be  tempted  above 
what  we  are  able,  but  with  every  temptation  will 
bring  a  way  of  escape  that  we  may  be  able  to  bear  it. 

The  greatest  folly  that  ever  grew  on  this  planet  is 
the  tendency  to  borrow  trouble  ;  but  there  are  times 
when  approaching  sorrow  is  so  evident  that  we  need 
to  be  making  especial  preparations  for  its  coming. 

One  of  your  children  has  lately  become  a  favorite. 
The  cry  of  that  child  strikes  deeper  into  the  heart 
than  the  cry  of  all  the  others.  You  think  more 
about  it.  You  give  it  more  attention,  not  because  it 
is  any  more  of  a  treasure  than  the  others,  but  be- 
cause it  is  becoming  frail.  There  is  something  in  the 
cheek,  in  the  eye  and  in  the  walk  that  makes  you 
quite  sure  that  the  leaves  of  the  flower  are  going  to 
be  scattered.  The  utmost  nursing  and  medical  at- 
tendance are  ineffectual.  The  pulse  becomes  feeble, 
the  complexion  lighter,  the  step  weaker,  the  faugh 
fainter.  No  more  romping  for  that  one  through  hall 
and  parlor.  The  nursery  is  darkened  by  an  approach- 
ing calamity.  The  heart  feels  with  mournful  antici- 
pation that  the  sun  is  going  down.  Night  speeds  on. 
It  is  toward  evening, 

You  have  long  rejoiced  in  the  care  of  a  mother. 
You  have  done  everything  to  make  her  last  days 
happy.  You  have  run  with  quick  feet  to  wait  upon 
her  every  want.  Her  presence  has  been  a  perpetual 
blessing  in  the  household.  But  the  fruit-gatherers 
are  looking  wistfully  at  that  tree.  Her  soul  is  ripe 
for  heaven.  The  gates  are  ready  to  flash  open  for 
her  entrance.  But  your  soul  sinks  at  the  thought  of 
separation.  You  can  not  bear  to  think  that  soon  you 


230  SUNSET. 

will  be  called  to  take  the  last  look  at  that  face,  which 
from  the  first  hour  has  looked  upon  you  with  affec- 
tion unchangeable.  But  you  see  that  life  is  ebbing, 
and  the  grave  will  soon  hide  her  from  your  sight. 
You  sit  quiet.  You  feel  heavy-hearted.  The  light 
is  fading''  from  the  skv,  the  air  is  chill.  It  is  toward 

o  *    7 

evening. 

You  had  a  considerable  estate  and  felt  independent. 
In  five  minutes  on  one  fair  balance  sheet  you  could 
see  just  how  you  stood  with  the  world.  But  there 
came  complications ;  something  that  you  imagined 
impossible,  happened.  The  best  friend  you  had 
proved  traitor  to  your  interest.  A  sudden  crash  of 
national  misfortune  prostrated  your  credit.  You 
may  to-day  be  going  on  in  business,  but  you  feel 
anxious  about  where  you  are  standing,  and  fear  that 
the  next  turn  of  the  commercial  wheel  will  bring  you 
prostrate,  You  foresee  what  you  consider  certain 
defalcation.  You  think  of  the  anguish  of  telling 
your  friends  that  you  are  not  worth  a  dollar.  You 
know  not  how  you  will  ever  bring  your  children 
home  from  school.  You  wonder  how  you  will  stand 
the  selling  of  your  library,  or  the  moving  into  a 
plainer  house.  The  misfortunes  of  life  have  accumu- 
lated. You  wonder  what  makes  the  sky  so  dark.  It 
is  toward  evening. 

Trouble  is  an  apothecary  that  mixes  a  great  many 
draughts,  bitter,  and  sour  and  nauseous,  and  you 
must  drink  some  one  of  them.  Trouble  puts  up  a 
great  many  packs,  and  you  must  carry  some  one  of 
them.  There  is  no  sandal  so  thick  and  well  adjusted 
but  some  thorn  will  strike  through  it.  There  is  no 
sound  so  sweet  but  the  undertaker's  screw-driver 
grates  through  it.  In  this  swift  shuttle  of  the  heart 


SUNSET.  231 

some  of  the  threads  must  break.  The  journey  from 
Jerusalem  to  Emmaus  will  soon  be  ended.  Our  Bible, 
our  common-sense,  our  observation  reiterates  in  tones 
that  we  can  not  mistake,  and  ought  not  to  disregard  ; 
it  is  toward  evening. 

Oh,  then,  for  Jesus  to  abide  with  us !  He  sweetens 
the  cup.  He  extracts  the  thorn.  He  wipes  the  tear. 
He  hushes  the  tempest.  He  soothes  the  soul  that 
flies  to  Him  for  shelter.  Let  the  night  swoop  and 
the  euroclydon  toss  the  sea.  Let  the  thunders  roar — - 
soon  all  will  be  well.  Christ  in  the  ship  to  soothe 
His  friends.  Christ  on  the  sea  to  stop  its  tumult. 
Christ  in  the  grave  to  scatter  the  darkness.  Christ 
in  the  heavens  to  lead  the  way.  Blessed  all  such. 
His  arms  will  inclose  them.  His  grace  comfort 
them.  His  light  cheer  them.  His  sacrifice  free  them. 
His  glory  enchant  them.  If  earthly  estate  take 
wings,  He  will  be  an  incorruptible  treasure.  If 
friends  die,  He  will  be  their  resurrection.  Standing 
with  us  in  the  morning  of  your  joy,  and  in  the  noon- 
day of  our  prosperity.  He  will  not  forsake  us  when 
the  luster  has  faded,  and  it  is  toward  evening. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

THE  FERRY  BOAT  OVER  THE  JORDAN. 

Every  day  I  find  people  trying  to  extemporize  a 
way  from  earth  to  heaven.  They  gather  up  their 
good  works  and  some  sentimental  theories,  and  they 
make  a  raft,  shoving  it  from  this  shore,  and  poor, 
deluded  souls  get  on  board  that  raft,  and  they  go 
down.  The  fact  is,  that  skepticism  and  infidelity 
never  yet  helped  one  man  to  die.  I  invite  all  the 
ship-carpenters  of  worldly  philosophy  to  come  and 
build  one  boat  that  can  safely  cross  this  river.  I 
invite  them  all  to  unite  their  skill,  and  Bolingbroke 
shall  lift  the  stanchions,  and  Carlyle  shall  set  up  the 
timber  heads,  and  Tyndall  shall  lift  the  bowsprit,  and 
Spinoza  shall  make  the  main-top  gallant  braces,  and 
Renan  shall  go  to  tacking,  and  wearing,  and  boxing 
the  ship. 

All  together  in  ten  thousand  years  they  will  never 
be  able  to  make  a  boat  that  can  cross  this  Jordan. 
Why  was  it  that  Spinoza  and  Blountand  Shaftesbury 
lost  their  souls?  It  was  because  they  tried  to  cross 
the  stream  in  a  boat  of  their  own  construction. 
What  miserable  work  they  all  made  of  dying!  Dio- 
dorus  died  of  mortification,  because  he  could  not 
guess  a  conundrum  which  had  been  proposed  to  him 
at  a  public  dinner;  Zeuxis,  the  philosopher,  died  of 
mirth,  laughing  at  a  caricature  of  an  aged  woman — a 
caricature  made  by  his  own  hand ;  while  another  of 

232 


THE  FERRY  BOAT  OVER  THE  JORDAN.     233 

their  company  and  of  their,  kind  died  saying,  "  Must 
I  leave  all  these  beautiful  pictures?"  and  then  Disked 
that  he  might  be  bolstered  up  in  the  bed  in  his  last 
moments,  and  be  shaved  and  painted  and  rouged. 
Of  all  the  unbelievers  of  all  ages  not  one  of  them 
died  well.  Some  of  them  sneaked  out  of  life  ;  some 
of  them  wept  themselves  away  into  darkness ;  some 
of  them  blasphemed  and  raved,  and  tore  their  bed- 
covers to  tatters.  That  is  the  way  worldly  philo- 
sophy helps  a  man  to  die.- 

When  we  cross  over  from  this  world  to  the  next, 
the  boat  will  have  to  come  from  the  other  side.  I 
stand  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  river  Jordan,  and  I 
find  no  shipping  at  all  ;  but,  while  I  am  standing 
there,  I  see  a  boat  plowing  through  the  river,  and  as 
I  hear  the  swirl  of  the  waters,  and  the  boat  comes  to 
the  eastern  side  of  the  Jordan,  and  David  and  his 
family  and  his  old  friend  step  on  board  that  boat,  I 
am  mightily  impressed  with  the  fact  that,  when  we 
crpss  over  from  this  world  to  the  next,  the  boat  will 
have  to  come  from  the  opposite  shore. 

Blessed  be  God,  there  is  a  boat  coming  from  the 
other  shore.  Transportation  at  last  for  our  souls « 
from  the  other  shore  ;  everything  about  this  Gospel 
from  the  other  shore  ;  pardon  frcm  the  other  shore  ; 
mercy  from  the  other  shore  ;  pity  from  the  other 
shore ;  ministry  of  angels  from  the  other  shore ; 
power  to  work  miracles  from  the  other  shore  ;  Jesus 
Christ  from  the  other  shore.  "  This  is  a  faithful 
saying,  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  Christ 
Jesus  came  into  the  world  [a  foreigner]  to  save 
sinners."  I  see  the  ferry-boat  coming,  and  it  rolls 
with  the  surges  of  a  Saviour's  suffering ;  but  as  it 
strikes  the  earth  the  mountains  rock,  and  the  dead 


234     THE  FERRY  BOAT  OVER  THE  JORDAN. 

adjust  their  apparel  so  that  they  may  be  fit  to  come 
out.  That  boat  touches  the  earth,  and  glorious 
Thomas  Walsh  gets  into  it,  in  -his  expiring  moment, 
saying:  "  He  has  come  !  He  has  come  !  My  Beloved 
is  mine,  and  I  am  His."  Good  Sarah  Wesley  got 
into  that  boat,  and  as  she  shoved  off  from  the  shore 
she  cried  :  "  Open  the  gates !  open  the  gates  ! "  And 
the  dying  Christian  soldier  got  into  that  boat.  He 
was  fatally  wounded  setting  up  the  telegraph  poles 
which  had  been  torn  down  by  the  opposing  army, 
and  in  his  dying  moments  his  Christian  triumph  and 
the  feverish  delirium  seemed  to  mingle,  and  he 
cried  out  with  exultation :  "  The  wires  are  all  laid  ; 
the  poles  are  all  up  from  Stony  Point  to  headquar- 
ters !  Huzzah  !  "  Oh,  I  bless  God  that  as  the  boat 
came  from  the  other  shore  to  take  David  and  his 
men  across,  so,  when  we  come  to  die,  the  boat  will 
come  from  the  same  direction.  God  forbid  that  T 
should  ever  trust  to  anything  that  starts  from  this 
side. 

Now,  I  want  to  break  a  delusion  in  your  mind,  and 
that  is  this.  When  our  friends  go  out  from  this 
world,  we  feel  sorry  for  them  because  they  have  to 
go  alone,  and  parents  hold  on  to  the  hands  of  their 
children  who  are  dying,  and  hold  on  with  something 
of  the  impression  that  the  moment  they  let  go  the 
little  one  will  be  in  the  darkness  and  in  the  boat  all 
alone.  "  Oh,"  the  parent  says,  "  if  I  could  only  go 
with  my  child,  I  would  be  willing  to  die  half  a  dozen 
times.  I  am  afraid  she  will  be  lost  in  the  woods  or 
in  the  darkness ;  I  am  afraid  she  will  be  very  much 
frightened  in  the  boat  ah  alone."  I  break  up  the 
delusion.  When  a  soul  goes  to  heaven  it  does  not 
go  alone ;  the  King  is  on  board  the  boat. 


THE  FERRY  BOAT  OVER  THE  JORDAN.     235 

Was  Paul  alone  in  the  last  exigency  ?  Hear  the 
shout  of  the  scarred  missionary  as  he  cries  out,  "  I 
am  now  ready  to  be  offered,  and  the  time  of  my  de- 
parture is  at  hand."  Was  John  Wesley  alone  in  the 
last  exigency  ?  No.  Hear  him  say,  "  Best  of  all, 
God  is  with  us."  Was  Sir  William  Forbes  alone  in 
the  last  exigency  ?  No.  Hear  him  say  to  his  friends, 
"  Tell  all  the  people  who  are  coming  down  to  the  bed 
of  death,  from  my  experience  has  no  terrors."  "Oh," 
say  a  great  many  people,  "  that  does  very  well  for 
distinguished  Christians ;  but  for  me,  a  common  man, 
for  me,  a  common  woman,  we  can't  expect  that  guid- 
ance and  help."  If  I  should  give  you  a  passage  of 
Scripture  that  would  promise  to  you  positively,  when 
you  are  crossing  the  river  to  the  next  world,  the  King 
would  be  in  the  boat,  would  you  believe  the  promise  ? 
"  Oh,  yes,"  you  say,  "  I  would."  Here  is  the  promise : 
"  When  thou  passest  through  the  waters,  I  will  be 
with  thee  ;  and  through  the  rivers,  they  shall  not 
overflow  thee."  Christ  at  the  sick  pillow  to  take  the 
soul  out  of  the  body ;  Christ  to  help  the  soul  down 
the  bank  into  the  boat ;  Christ  mid  stream  ;  Christ  on 
the  other  side  to  help  the  soul  up  the  beach.  Be 
comforted  about  your  departed  friends.  Be  com- 
forted about  your  own  demise  when  the  time  shall 
come.  Tell  it  to  all  the  people  under  the  sun  that 
no  Christian  ever  dies  alone ;  the  King  is  in  the 
boat. 

Leaving  this  world  for  heaven  is  onlv  crossing  a 
ferry.  Dr.  Shaw  estimates  the  average  width  of  the 
Jordan  to  be  about  thirty  yards.  What !  so  narrow? 
Yes.  Yes,  going  to  heaven  is  only  a  short  trip — only 
a  ferry.  It  may  be  eighty  miles,  that  is  eighty  years, 
before  we  get  to  the  wet  bank  on  the  other  side,  and 


236     THE  FERRY  BOAT  OVER  THE  JORDAN. 

we  may  travel  millions  of  miles,  that  is  millions  of 
years,  on  the  other  side  ;  but  the  crossing  is  short.  I 
will  tell  you  the  whole  secret.  It  is  not  five  minutes 
across,  nor  three,  nor  two,  nor  one  minute.  It  is  an 
instantaneous  transportation.  People  talk  as  though 
leaving  this  life,  the  Christian  went  plunging,  and 
floundering,  and  swimming,  to  crawl  up  exhausted 
on  the  other  shore  ;  and  to  be  pulled  out  of  the  pelt- 
ing surf  as  by  a  Ramsgate  life  boat.  No  such  thing. 
It  is  only  a  ferry.  It  is  so  narrow  that  we  can  hail 
each  other  from  bank  to  bank.  It  is  only  four  arms' 
length  across.  The  arm  of  earthly  farewell  put  out 
from  this  side,  the  arm  of  heavenly  welcome  put  out 
from  the  other  side;  while  the  dying  Christian,  stand- 
ing mid-stream,  stretches  out  his  two  arms,  the  one 
to  take  the  farewell  of  earth,  and  the  other  to  take 
the  greeting  of  heaven.  That  makes  four  arms' 
lengths  across  the  river. 

Blessed  be  God,  that  when  we  leave  this  world  we 
are  not  to  have  a  great  and  perilous  enterprise  of 
getting  into  heaven.  Not  a  dangerous  Franklin  ex- 
pedition, to  find  the  Northwest  passage  among  ice- 
bergs, Only  a  ferry.  That  accounts  for  something 
you  have  never  been  able  to  understand.  You  never 
supposed  that  very  nervous  and  timid  Christian  peo- 
ple could  be  so  perfectly  unexcited  and  placid  in  the 
last  hour.  The  fact  is,  they  were  clear  down  on  the 
bank,  and  they  saw  there  was  nothing  to  be  fright- 
ened about.  Such  a  short  distance — only  a  ferry. 
With  one  ear  they  heard  the  funeral  psalm  in  their 
memory,  and  with  the  other  ear  they  heard  the  song 
of  heavenly  salutation.  The  willows  on  this  side  the 
Jordan  and  the  Lebanon  cedars  on  the  other  almost 
interlocked  their  branches.  Onlv  a  ferrv. 


THE  FERRY  BOAT  OVER  THE  JORDAN.     237 

When  we  cross  over  at  the  last,  we  shall  find  a 
solid  landing.  The  ferry-boat  means  a  place  to  start 
from  and  a  place  to  land.  David  and  his  people  did 
not  find  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Jordan  any  more 
solid  than  the  western  shore  where  he  landed,  and  yet 
to  a  great  many  heaven  is  not  a  real  place.  To  you 
heaven  is  a  fog-bank  in  the  distance.  Now  my 
heaven  is  a  solid  heaven.  .  After  the  resurrection  has 
come  you  will  have  a  resurrected  foot,  and  some- 
thing to  tread  on  ;  and  a  resurrected  eye,  and  colors 
to  see  with  it ;  and  a  resurrected  ear,  and  music  to 
regale  it.  Smart  men  in  this  day  are  making  a  great 
deal  of  fun  about  St.  John's  materialistic  descriptions 
of  heaven.  Well  now,  my  friends,  if  you  will  tell  me 
what  will  be  the  use  of  a  resurrected  body  in  heaven 
with  nothing  to  tread  on,  and  nothing  to  hear,  and 
nothing  to  handle,  and  nothing  to  taste,  then  I  will 
laugh  too.  Are  you  going  to  float  about  in  ether  for- 
ever, swinging  about  your  hands  and  feet  through 
the  air  indiscriminately,  and  one  moment  sweltering  in 
the  center  of  the  sun,  and  the  next  moment  shivering 
in  the  mountains  of  the  moon  ?  •  That  is  not  my 
heaven. 

Dissatisfied  with  John's  materialistic  heaven,  theo- 
logical thinkers  are  trying  to  patch  up  a  heaven  that 
will  do  for  them  at  the  last.  I  never  heard  of  any 
heaven  I  want  to  go  to,  except  St.  John's  heaven.  I 
believe  I  shall  hear  Mr.  Toplady  sing  yet,  and  Isaac 
Watts  recite  hymns,  and  Mozart  play.  '•  Oh,"  you 
say,  "  where  would  you  get  the  organ  ?  "  The  Lord 
will  provide  the  organ.  Don't  you  bother  about  the 
organ.  I  believe  I  shall  yet  see  David  with  a  harp, 
and  I  will  ask  him  to  sing  one  of  the  songs  of  Zion.  I 
believe  after  the  resurrection  I  shall  see  Masillon,  the 


238     THE  FERRY  BOAT  OVER  THE  JORDAN. 

great  French  pulpit  orator,  and  I  shall  hear  from  his 
own  lips  how  he  felt  on  that  day  when  he  preached 
the  king's  funeral  sermon,  and  flung  his  whole  audi- 
ence into  a  paroxysm  of  grief  and  solemnity.  I  have 
no  patience  with  your  transcendental  gelatinous  gase- 
ous heaven.  My  heaven  is  not  a  fog-bank.  My  eyes 
are  unto  the  hills,  the  everlasting  hills.  The  King's 
ferry-boat,  starting  from  a  wharf  on  this  side,  will  go 
to  a  wharf  on  the  other  side. 

Our  arrival  will  not  be  like  stepping  ashore  at  Ant- 
werp or  Constantinople,  among  a  crowd  of  strangers ; 
it  will  be  among  friends,  good  friends,  warm-hearted 
friends,  and  all  their  friends. 

We  know  people  whom  we  have  never  seen,  by 
hearing  somebody  talk  about  them  very  much ;  we 
know  them  almost  as  well  as  if  we  had  seen  them. 
And  do  you  not  suppose  that  our  parents  and 
brothers  and  sisters  and  children  in  heaven  have 
been  talking  about  us  all  these  years,  and  talking  to 
their  friends?  so  that,  I  suppose,  when  we  cross  the 
river  at  the  last,  we  shall  not  only  be  met  by  all  those 
Christian  friends  whom  we  knew  on  earth,  but  by  all 
their  friends.  They  will  come  down  to  the  landing 
to  meet  us.  Your  departed  friends  love  you  more 
now  than  they  ever  did.  You  will  be  surprised  at 
the  last  to  find  how  they  know  about  all  the  affairs 
of  your  life.  Why,  they  are  only  across  the  ferry  ; 
and  the  boat  is  coming  this  way,  and  the  boat  is 
going  that  way.  I  do  not  know  but  that  they  have 
already  asked  the  Lord  the  day,  the  hour,  the 
moment,  when  you  are  coming  across,  and  that  they 
know  now  ;  but  I  do  know  you  will  be  met  at  the 
landing.  The  poet  Southey  said  he  thought  he 
should  know  Bishop  Heber  in  heaven  by  the  por- 


THE  FERRY  BOAT  OVER  THE  JORDAN.    239 

traits  he  had  seen  of  him  in  London  ;  and  Dr.  Ran- 
dolph said  he  thought  he  would  know  William 
Cowper,  the  poet,  in  heaven,  from  the  pictures  he  had 
seen  of  him  in  England ;  but  we  will  know  our 
departed  kindred  by  the  portraits  hung  in  the  throne- 
room  of  our  hearts. 

On  starlight  nights  you  look  up — and  I  suppose  it 
is  so  with  any  one  who  has  friends  in  heaven — on 
starlight  nights  you  look  up,  and  you  cannot  help 
but  think  of  those  who  have  gone  ;  and  I  suppose 
they  look  down,  and  cannot  but  think  of  us.  But 
they  have  the  advantage  of  us.  We  know  not  just 
where  their  world  of  joy  is ;  they  know  where  we 
are. 

There  was  romance  as  well  as  Christian  beauty  in 
the  life  of  Dr.  Adoniram  Judson,  the  Baptist  mis- 
sionary, when  he  concluded  to  part  from  his  wife, 
she  to  come  to  America  to  restore  her  health,  he  to 
go  back  to  Burmah  to  preach  the  Gospel.  They  had 
started  from  Burmah  for  the  United  States  together, 
but,  getting  near  St.  Helena,  Mrs.  Judson  was  so 
much  better  she  said  :  "  Well,  now,  I  can  get  home 
very  easily  ;  you  go  back  to  Burmah  and  preach  the 
Gospel  to  those  poor  people.  I  am  almost  well ;  I 
shall  soon  be  well,  and  then  I  will  return  to  you." 
After  she  had  made  that  resolution,  terrific  in  its 
grief,  willing  to  give  up  her  husband  for  Christ's 
sake,  she  sat  down  in  her  room,  and  with  her  trem- 
bling hand  wrote  some  eight  or  ten  verses,  two  or 
three  of  which  i  will  give  you : 

"  We  part  on  this  green  islet,  love; 

Thou  for  the  eastern  main ; 
I  for  the  setting  sun,  love: 
Oh,  when  to  meet  again ! 


240    THE  FERRY  BOAT  OVER  THE  JORDAN. 

"  When  we  knelt  to  see  our  Henry  die, 

And  heard  his  last  faint  moan, 
Each  wiped  away  the  other's  tears; 
Now  each  must  weep  alone. 

"  And  who  can  paint  our  mutual  joy 

When,  all  our  wandering  o'er, 
We  both  shall  clasp  our  infants  three, 
At  home  on  Burmah's  shore? 

"  But  higher  shall  our  raptures  glow 

On  yon  celestial  plain, 
When  the  loved  and  parted  here  helow 
Meet  ne'er  to  part  again." 

She  folded  that  manuscript ;  a  relapse  of  her  disease 
came  on,  and  she  died.  Dr.  Judson  says  he  put  her 
away,  for  the  resurrection,  on  the  Isle  of  St.  Helena. 
They  had  thought  to  part  for  a  year  or  two  ;  now 
they  parted  forever,  so  far  as  this  world  is  concerned. 
And  he  savs  he  hastened  on  board  after  the  funeral 
with  his  little  children  to  start  for  Burmah,  for  the 
vessel  had  already  lifted  her  sails ;  and  he  said :  "  I 
sat  down  for  some  time  in  my  cabin,  my  little  chil- 
dren around  me  crying,  'Mother,  mother!'  and  I 
abandoned  mvself  to  heart-breaking  grief.  But  one 
day  the  thought  came  across  me,  as  my  faith 
stretched  her  wing,  that  we  should  meet  in  heaven, 
and  I  was  comforted." 

Was  it,  mv  friends,  all  a  delusion?  When  he  died, 
did  she  meet  him  at  the  landing?  When  she  died, 
did  the  scores  of  souls  whom  she  had  brought  to 
Christ,  and  who  had  preceded  her  to  heaven,  meet 
her  at  the  landing?  I  believe  it;  I  know  it.  Oh, 
glorious  consolation,  that  when  our  poor  work  on 
earth  is  clone  and  we  cross  the  river,  we  shall  be  met 
at  the  landing. 


PART   II. 


(Joalg  for1  tjje  Cfhufch  Jfilitaqt, 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

DOWNFALL   OF   CHRISTIANITY. 

Christianity  is  the  rising  sun  of  our  time,  and  men 
have  tried  with  the  uprolling  vapors  of  skepticism  and 
the  smoke  of  their  blasphemy  to  turn  the  sun  into 
darkness.  Suppose  the  archangels  of  malice  and 
horror  should  be  let  loose  a  little  while  and  be 
allowed  to  extinguish  and  destroy  the  sun  in  the  nat- 
ural heavens.  They  would  take  the  oceans  from 
other  worlds  and  pour  them  on  this  luminary  of  the 
planetary  system,  and  the  waters  go  hissing  down 
amid  the  ravines  and  the  caverns,  and  there  is  explo- 
sion after  explosion,  until  there  are  only  a  few  peaks 
of  fire  left  in  the  sun,  and  these  are  cooling  down  and 
going  out  until  the  vast  continents  of  flame  are  re- 
duced to  a  small  acreage  of  fire,  and  that  whitens 
and  cools  off  until  there  are  only  a  few  coals  left,  and 
these  are  whitening  and  going  out  until  there  is  not 
a  spark  left  in  all  the  mountains  of  ashes  and  the  val- 
leys of  ashes  and  the  chasms  of  ashes.  An  extin- 
guished sun.  A  dead  sun.  A  buried  sun.  Let  all 
worlds  wail  at  the  stupendous  obsequies.  Of  course, 
this  withdrawal  of  the  solar  light  and  heat  throws 
our  earth  into  a  universal  chill,  and  the  tropics  be- 
come the  temperate,  and  the  temperate  becomes  the 
Arctic,  and  there  are  frozen  rivers  and  frozen  lakes 
and  frozen  oceans.  From  the  Arctic  and  Antarctic 
regions  the  inhabitants  gather  in  toward  the  center 

243 


244  DOWNFALL   OF   CHRISTIANITY. 

and  find  the  equator  as  the  poles.  The  slain  forests 
are  piled  up  into  a  great  bonfire,  and  around  them 
gather  the  shivering  villages  and  cities.  The  wealth 
of  the  coal  mines  is  hastily  poured  into  the  furnaces 
and  stirred  into  rage  of  combustion,  but  soon  the 
bonfires  begin  to  lower,  and  the  furnaces  begin  to  go 
out,  and  the  nations  begin  to  die.  Cotopaxi,  Vesu- 
vius, Etna,  Stromboli,  California!!  geysers  cease  to 
smoke,  and  the  ice  of  hailstorms  remains  unmelted 
in  their  crater.  All  the  flowers  have  breathed  their 
last  breath.  Ships  with  sailors  frozen  at  the  mast  and 
helmsmen  frozen  at  the  wheel,  and  passengers  frozen 
in  the  cabin. 

All  nations  dying,  first  at  the  north  and  then  at  the 
south.  Child  frosted  and  dead  in  the  cradle.  Oc- 
togenarian frosted  and  dead  at  the  hearth.  Work- 
men with  frozen  hand  on  the  hammer  and  frozen  foot 
on  the  shuttle.  Winter  from  sea  to  sea.  All-con- 
gealing winter.  Perpetual  winter.  Globe  of  frigidity. 
Hemisphere  shackled  to  hemisphere  by  chains  of  ice. 
Universal  Nova  Zembla.  The  earth  an  ice-floe  grind- 
ing against  other  ice-floes.  The  archangels  of  malice 
and  horror  have  done  their  work,  and  now  they  may 
take  their  thrones  of  glacier,  and  look  down  on  the 
ruin  they  have  wrought. 

What  the  destruction  of  the  sun  in  the  natural 
heavens  would  be  to  our  physical  earth,  the  destruc- 
tion of  Christianity  would  be  to  the  moral  world. 
The  sun  turned  into  darkness.  Infidelity  in  our  time 
is  considered  a  great  joke.  There  are  people  who 
will  gather  to  hear  Christianity  caricatured,  and  to 
hear  Christ  assailed  with  quibble,  and  quirk,  and 
misrepresentation,  and  badinage,  and  harlequinade. 

I  propose  to  take  Infidelity  and  Atheism  out  of  the 


DOWNFALL   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  245 

realms  ot  jocularity  into  one  of  tragedy,  and  show 
you  what  these,  men  propose,  and  what,  if  they  are 
successful,  they  will  accomplish.  There  are  those  in 
all  our  communities  who  would  like  to  see  the  Chris- 
tian religion  overthrown,  and  who  say  the  world 
would  be  better  without  it.  I  want  to  show  you 
what  is  the  end  of  this  road,  and  what  is  the  terminus 
of  this  crusade,  and  what  this  world  would  be  when 
Atheism  and  Infidelity  have  triumphed  over  it,  if 
they  can.  I  say,  if  they  can.  I  reiterate  it,  if  they 
can. 

In  the  first  place,  it  will  be  the  complete  and  unut- 
terable degradation  of  womanhood. 

I  will  prove  it  by  facts  and  arguments  which  no 
honest  man  will  dispute.  In  all  communities,  and 
cities,  and  states,  and  nations,  where  the  Christian  re- 
ligion has  been  dominant,  woman's  condition  has  been 
ameliorated  and  improved,  and  she  is  deferred  to  and 
honored  in  a  thousand  things,  and  ever}-  gentleman 
takes  off  his  hat  before  her.  If  your  associations 
have  been  good,  you  know  that  the  name  of  wife, 
mother,  daughter,  suggest  gracious  surroundings. 

Now,  compare  this  with  woman's  condition  in 
lands  where  Christianity  has  made  little  or  no  ad- 
vance— in  China,  in  Barbary,  in  Borneo,  in  Tartary, 
in  Egypt,  in  Hindostan.  The  Burmese  sell  their 
wives  and  daughters  as  so  many  sheep.  The  Hindoo 
Bible  makes  it  disgraceful  and  an  outrage  for  a 
woman  to  listen  to  music,  or  look  out  of  the  window 
in  the  absence  of  her  husband,  and  gives  as  a  lawful 
ground  for  divorce,  a  woman's  beginning  to  eat 
before  her  husband  has  finished  his  meal.  What 
mean  those  white  bundles  on  the  ponds  and  rivers  in 
China  in  the  morning  ?  Infanticide  following  infant- 


246  DOWNFALL  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

icicle.  Female  children  destroyed,  simply  because 
they  are  female.  Women  harnessed  to  a  plow  as  an 
ox.  Women  veiled  and  barricaded,  and  in  all  styles 
of  cruel  seclusion.  Her  birth  a  misfortune.  Her 
life  a  torture.  Her  death  a  horror.  The  missionary 
of  the  cross  to-day,  in  heathen  lands,  preaches  gen- 
erally to  two  groups — a  group  of  men  who  do  as 
they  please,  and  sit  where  they  please  ;  the  other 
group  women,  hidden  and  carefully  secluded  in  a 
side  apartment,  where  they  may  hear  the  voice  of 
the  preacher,  but  may  not  be  seen.  No  refinement. 
No  liberty.  No  hope  for  this  life.  No  hope  for  the 
life  to  come.  Ringed  nose.  Cramoed  foot.  Dis- 
figured face.  Embruted  soul. 

Now,  compare  those  two  conditions.  How  far 
toward  this  latter  condition  would  woman  go  if 
Christian  influences  were  withdrawn,  and  Christi- 
anity were  destroyed?  It  is  only  a  question  of 
dynamics. 

If  an  object  be  lifted  to  a  certain  point  and  not 
fastened  there,  and  the  lifting  power  be  withdrawn, 
how  long  before  that  object  will  fall  down  to  the 
point  from  which  it  started  ?  It  will  fall  down,  and 
it  will  go  still  further  than  the  point  from  which  it 
started.  Christianity  has  lifted  women  up  from  the 
very  depths  of  degradation  almost  to  the  skies.  If 
that  lifting  power  be  withdrawn,  she  falls  clear  back 
to  the  depth  from  which  she  was  resurrected,  not 
going  any  lower,  because  there  is  no  lower  depth. 

If  infidelity  triumph,  and  Christianity  be  over- 
thrown, it  means  the  demoralization  of  society.  The 
one  idea  in  the  Bible  that  atheists  and  infidels  most 
hate,  is  the  idea  of  retribution.  Take  away  the  idea 
of  retribution  and  punishment  from  society,  and  it 


DOWNFALL   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  247 

will  begin  very  soon  to  disintegrate ;  and  take  away 
from  the  minds  of  men  the  fear  of  hell,  and  there  are 
a  great  many  of  them  who  would  very  soon  turn 
this  world  into  a  hell. 

The  majority  of  those  who  are  indignant  against 
the  Bible  because  of  the  idea  of  a  punishment  are 
men  whose  lives  are  bad  or  whose  hearts  are  impure, 
and  who  hate  the  Bible  because  of  the  idea  of  future 
punishment  for  the  same  reason  that  criminals  hate 
the  penitentiary.  Oh,  I  have  heard  this  brave  talk 
about  people  fearing  nothing  of  the  consequences  of 
sin  in  the  next  world,  and  I  have  made  up  my  mind 
it  is  merely  a  coward's  whistling  to  keep  his  courage 
up.  I  have  seen  men  flaunt  their  immoralities  in  the 
face  of  the  community,  and  I  have  heard  them  defy 
the  Judgment  Day  and  scoff  at  the  idea  of  any  future 
consequence  of  their  sin ;  but  when  they  came  to  die 
they  shrieked  until  you  could  hear  them  for  nearly 
two  blocks,  and  in  the  summer  night  the  neighbors 
got  up  to  put  the  windows  down  because  they  could 
not  endure  the  horror. 

I  would  not  want  to  see  a  railroad  train  with  five 
hundred  Christian  people  on  board  go  down  through 
a  drawbridge  into  a  watery  grave.  I  would  not 
want  to  see  five  hundred  Christian  people  go  into 
such  disaster,  but  I  tell  you  plainly  that  I  could  more 
easily  see  that  than  I  could  for  any  protracted  time 
stand  and  see  an  infidel  die,  though  his  pillow  were 
of  eider-down  and  under  a  canopy  of  vermilion.  I 
have  never  been  able  to  brace  up  my  nerves  for  such 
a  spectacle.  There  is  something  at  such  a  time  so 
indescribable  in  the  countenance.  I  just  looked  in 
upon  it  for  a  minute  or  two,  but  the  clutch  of  his  fist 
was  so  diabolic,  and  the  strength  of  his  voice  was  so 


248  DOWNFALL   OF   CHRISTIANITY. 

unnatural,  I  could  not  endure  it.  "  There  is  no  hell, 
there  is  no  hell,  there  is  no  hell !  "  the  man  had  said 
for  sixty  years;  but  that  night  when  I  looked  into 
the  dying  room  of  my  infidel  neighbor,  there  was 
something  on  his  countenance  which  seemed  to  say, 
"  There  is,  there  is,  there  is,  there  is!  " 

The  mightiest  restraints  to-day  against  theft,  against 
immorality,  against  libertinism,  against  crime  of  all 
sorts — the  mightiest  restraints  are  the  retributions  of 
eternity.  Men  know  that  they  can  escape  the  law, 
but  down  in  the  offender's  soul  there  is  the  realization 
of  the  fact  that  they  cannot  escape  God.  He  stands 
at  the  end  of  the  road  of  profligacy,  and  He  will  not 
clear  the  guilty.  Take  all  idea  of  retribution  and 
punishment  out  of  the  hearts  and  minds  of  men,  and 
it  would  not  be  long  before  Brooklyn  and  New  York 
and  Boston  and  Charleston  and  Chicaaro  became 

o 

Sodoms.  The  only  restraints  against  the  evil  pas- 
sions of  the  world  to-day  are  Bible  restraints. 

Suppose  now  these  generals  of  Atheism  and  Infidel- 
ity got  the  victory,  and  suppose  the}7  marshalled  a 
great  army  made  up  of  the  majority  of  the  world. 
They  are  in  companies,  in  regiments,  in  brigades — 
the  whole  army.  Forward,  march!  ye  host  of  infidels 
and  atheists,  banners  flying  before,  banners  flying  be- 
hind, banners  inscribed  with  the  words:  "  No  God  ! 
No  Christ!  No  punishment !  No  restraints!  Down 
with  the  Bible  !  Do  as  you  please  !"  The  sun  turned 
into  darkness.  Forward,  march!  ye  great  army  of 
infidels  and  atheists.  And  first  of  all  you  will  attack 
the  churches.  Away  with  those  houses  of  worship! 
They  have  been  standing  there  so  long  deluding  the 
people  with  consolation  in  their  bereavements  and 
sorrows.  All  those  churches  ought  to  be  extirpated ; 


DOWNFALL   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  249 

they  have  done  so  much  to  relieve  the  lost  and  bring 
home  the  wandering,  and  they  have  so  long  held  up 
the  idea  of  eternal  rest  after  the  paroxysm  of  this  life 
is  over.  Turn  the  St.  Peters  and  St.  Pauls  and  the 
temples  and  tabernacles  into  club-houses.  Away 
with  those  churches ! 

Forward,  march  !  ye  great  army  of  infidels  and 
atheists,  and  next  of  all  they  scatter  the  Sabbath- 
schools  ;  the  Sabbath-schools  filled  with  bright-eyed, 
bright-cheeked  little  ones  who  are  singing  songs  on 
Sunday  afternoon,  and  getting  instruction  when  they 
ought  to  be  on  the  street  corners  playing  marbles,  or 
swearing  on  the  commons.  Away  with  them  !  For- 
ward, march  !  ye  great  army  of  infidels  and  atheists, 
and  next  of  all  they  will  attack  Christian  asylums — the 
institutions  of  mercy  supported  by  Christian  philan- 
thropies. Never  mind  the  blind  eyes  and  the  deaf  ears 
and  the  crippled  limbs  and  the  weakened  intellects. 
Let  paralyzed  old  age  pick  up  its  own  food,  and 
orphans  fight  their  own  way,  and  the  half  reformed 
go  back  to  their  evil  habits.  Forward,  march!  ye 
great  army  of  infidels  and  atheists,  and  with  your 
battle-axes  hew  down  the  cross  and  split  up  the 
manger  of  Bethlehem.  Civilization  hurled  back  into 
semi-barbarism,  and  semi-barbarism  driven  back  into 
Hottentot  savagery.  The  wheel  of  progress  turned 
the  other  way,  and  turned  toward  the  dark  ages. 
The  clock  of  the  centuries  put  back  two  thousand 
years.  Go  back,  you  Sandwich  Islands,  from  your 
schools  and  from  your  colleges  and  from  your  re- 
formed condition  to  what  you  were  in  1820,  when 
the  missionaries  first  came.  Call  home  the  five  hun- 
dred missionaries  from  India  and  overthrow  their 
two  thousand  schools,  where  they  are  trying  to  edu- 


250  DOWNFALL   OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

cate  the  heathen,  and  scatter  the  one  hundred  and 
forty  thousand  little  children  that  they  have  gathered 
out  of  barbarism  into  civilization.  Obliterate  all  the 
work  of  Dr.  Duff  in  India,  of  David  Abeel  in  China, 
of  Dr.  King  in  Greece,  of  Judson  in  Burmah,  of 
David  Brainard  amid  the  American  aborigines,  and 
send  home  the  three  thousand  missionaries  of  the 
cross  who  are  toiling  in  foreign  lands,  toiling  for 
Christ's  sake,  toiling  themselves  into  the  grave.  Tell 
these  three  thousand  men  of  God  that  they  are  of  no 
use.  Send  home  the  medical  missionaries  who  are 
doctoring  the  bodies  as  well  as  the  souls  of  the  dying 
nations.  Go  home,  London  Missionary  Society. 
Go  home,  American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions. 
Go  home,  ye  Moravians,  and  relinquish  back  into 
darkness  and  squalor  and  filth  and  death  the  nations 
whom  ye  have  begun  to  lift. 

A  thousand  voices  come  up  to  me  saying :  "  Do 
you  really  think  Infidelity  will  succeed?  Has 
Christianity  received  its  death-blow  ?  and  will  the 
Bible  become  obsolete  ? "  Yes,  when  the  smoke 
of  the  city  chimney  arrests  and  destroys  the  noon- 
day sun.  Josephus  says  about  the  time  of  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem  the  sun  was  turned  into 
darkness;  but  only  the  clouds  rolled  between  the 
sun  and  the  earth.  The  sun  went  right  on.  It  is 
the  same  sun,  the  same  luminary  as  when  at  the 
beginning  it  shot  out  like  an  electric  spark  from 
God's  finger,  and  to-day  it  is  warming  the  nations, 
and  to-day  it  is  gilding  the  sea,  and  to-day  it  is  filling 
the  earth  with  light.  The  same  old  sun,  not  at  all 
worn  out,  though  its  light  steps  one  hundred  and 
ninety  million  miles  a  second,  though  its  pulsations 
are  four  hundred  and  fifty  trillion  undulations  in  a 


DOWNFALL   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  2$  I 

second.  Same  sun  with  beautiful  white  light  made 
up  of  the  violet  and  the  indigo  and  the  blue  and  the 
green  and  the  red  and  the  yellow  and  the  orange— 
the  seven  beautiful  colors  now  just  as  when  the  solar 
spectrum  first  divided  them. 

At  the  beginning  God  said  :  ''  Let  there  be  light," 
and  light  was,  and  light  is,  and  light  shall  be.  So 
Christianity  is  rolling  on,  and  it  is  going  to  warm  all 
nations,  and  all  nations  are  to  bask  in  its  light.  Men 
may  shut  the  window  blinds  so  they  cannot  see  it,  or 
they  may  smoke  the  pipe  of  speculation  until  they 
are  shadowed  under  their  own  vaporing ;  but  the 
Lord  God  is  a  sun  !  This  white  light  of  the  Gospel 
made  up  of  all  the  beautiful  colors  of  earth  and 
heaven — violet  plucked  from  amid  the  spring  grass, 
and  the  indigo  of  the  Southern  jungles,  and  the  blue 
of  the  skies,  and  the  green  of  the  foliage,  and  the 
yellow  of  the  autumnal  woods,  and  the  orange  of  the 
Southern  groves,  and  the  red  of  the  sunsets.  All  the 
beauties  of  earth  and  heaven  brought  out  by  this 
spiritual  spectrum.  Great  Britain  is  going  to  take 
all  Europe  for  God.  The  United  States  are  going  to 
take  all  America  for  God.  Both  of  them  together 
will  take  all  Asia  for  God.  All  three  of  them  will  take 
Africa  for  God.  "  Who  art  thou,  oh  great  mountain  ? 
before  Zerubbabel  thou  shalt  become  a  plain."  The 
mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  spoken  it.  Hallelujah, 
amen! 


CHAPTER    XXV. 

EVOLUTION. 

There  is  no  contest  between  genuine  science  and 
revelation.  The  same  God  who,  by  the  hand  of 
prophet  .wrote  on  parchment,  by  the  hand  of  the  storm 
wrote  on  the  rock.  The  best  telescopes  and  micro- 
scopes and  electric  batteries  and  philosophical  appa- 
ratus belong"  to  Christian  universities.  Who  gave  us 
magnetic  telegraphy  ?  Professor  Morse,  a  Christian. 
Who  swung  the  lightnings  under  the  sea,  cabling  the 
continents  together?  Cyrus  W.  Field,  the  Christian. 
Who  discovered  the  anassthetical  properties  of  chlo- 
roform, doing  more  for  the  relief  of  human  pain  than 
any  man  that  ever  lived,  driving  back  nine-tenths  of 
the  horrors  of  surgery?  James  Y.  Simpson,  of  Edin- 
burgh, as  eminent  for  piety  as  for  science ;  on  week 
days  in  the  university  lecturing  on  profoundest  scien- 
tific subjects,  and  on  Sabbaths  preaching  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  masses  of  Edinburgh.  I  saw 
the  universities  of  that  city  draped  in  mourning  for 
his  death,  and  I  heard  his  eulogy  pronounced  by  the 
destitute  populations  of  the  Cowgate.  Science  and 
revelation  are  the  bass  and  the  soprano  of  the  same 
tune.  The  whole  world  will  yet  acknowledge  the 
complete  harmony.  But  between  science  falsely  so 
called  and  revelation,  there  is  an  uncompromising 
war,  and  one  or  the  other  must  go  under.  And 
when  I  say  scientists,  of  course,  I  do  not  mean  liter- 

252 


EVOLUTION  253 

ary  men  or  theologians  who  in  essay  or  in  sermon, 
and  without  giving  their  life  to  scientific  investiga- 
tion look  at  the  subject  on  this  side  or  that.  By  sci- 
entists I  mean  those  who  have  a  specialty  in  that 
direction,  and  who,  through  zoological  garden  and 
aquarium  and  astronomical  observatory,  give  their 
life  to  the  study  of  the  physical  earth,  its  plants  and 
its  animals,  and  the  regions  beyond  so  far  as  optical 
instruments  have  explored  them. 

I  put  upon  the  witness  stand,  living  and  dead,  the 
leading  evolutionists — Ernst  Heckel,  John  Stuart 
Mill,  Huxley,  Tyndall,  Darwin,  Spencer.  On  the 
witness  stand,  ye  men  of  science,  living  and  dead, 
answer  these  questions :  Do  you  believe  the  Holy 
Scriptures  ?  No.  And  so  they  say  all.  Do  you  be- 
lieve the  Bible  story  of  Adam  and  Eve  in  the  Gar- 
den of  Eden  ?  No.  And  so  they  say  all.  Do  you 
believe  the  miracles  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament? 
No.  And  so  they  say  all.  Do  you  believe  that  Jesus 
Christ  died  to  save  the  nations  ?  No.  And  so  they 
say  all.  Do  you  believe  in  the  regenerating  power 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  No.  And  so  they  say  all.  Do 
you  believe  that  human  supplication  directed  heaven- 
ward ever  makes  any  difference  ?  No.  And  so  they 
say  all. 

Herbert  Spencer,  in  the  only  address  he  made  in 
this  country,  in  his  very  first  sentence  ascribes  his 
physical  ailments  to  fate,  and  the  authorized  report  of 
that  address  begins  the  word  fate  with  a  big  "F." 
Professor  Heckel,  in  the  very  first  page  of  his  two 
great  volumes  sneers  at  the  Bible  as  a  so-called  reve- 
lation. Tyndall,  in  his  famous  prayer  test,  defied  the 
whole  of  Christendom  to  show  that  human  supplica- 
tion made  any  difference  in  the  result  of  things. 


254  EVOLUTION. 

John  Stuart  Mill  wrote  elaborately  against  Christian- 
ity, and  to  show  that  his  rejection  of  it  was  complete, 
ordered  this  epitaph  for  his  tombstone:  "Most  un- 
happv."  Huxley  said  that  at  the  first  reading  of 
Darwin's  book  he  was  convinced  of  the  fact  that 
teleology,  by  which  he  means  Christianity,  had  re- 
ceived its  death-blow  at  the  hand  of  Mr.  Darwin.  All 
the  leading  scientists  who  believe  in  evolution,  with- 
out one  exception  the  world  over,  are  infidel.  I  say 
nothing  against  infidelity,  mind  you ;  I  only  wish  to 
define  the  belief  and  the  meaning  of  the  rejection. 

Now,  I  put  opposite  to  each  other,  to  show  that 
evolution  is  infidelity,  the  Bible  account  of  how  the 
human  race  started,  and  the  evolutionist  account  as 
to  how  the  human  race  started.  Bible  account : 
"  God  said,  let  us  make  man  in  our  image.  God 
created  man  in  his  own  image ;  male  and  female 
created  He  them."  He  breathed  into  him  the  breath 
of  life,  the  whole  story  setting  forth  the  idea  that  it 
was  not  a  perfect  kangaroo,  or  a  perfect  orang  outang, 
but  a  perfect  man.  That  is-  the  Bible  account.  The 
evolutionist  account:  Away  back  in  the  ages  there 
were  four  or  five  primal  germs,  or  seminal  spores 
from  which  all  the  living  creatures  have  been  evolved. 
Go  away  back,  and  there  you  will  find  a  vegetable 
stuff  that  might  be  called  a  mushroom.  This  mush- 
room by  innate  force  develops  a  tadpole,  the  tadpole 
by  innate  force  develops  a  poly  wog,  the  poly  wog  de- 
velops a  fish,  the  fish  by  natural  force  develops  into  a 
reptile,  the  reptile  develops  into  a  quadruped,  the 
quadruped  develops  into  a  baboon,  the  baboon  de- 
velops into  a  man." 

Darwin  says  that  the  human  hand  is  only  a  fish's 
fin  developed.  He  says  that  the  human  lungs  are 


EVOLUTION.  255 

only  a  swim  bladder  showing  that  we  once  floated  or 
were  amphibious.  He  says  the  human  ear  could 
once  have  been  moved  by  force  of  will  just  as  a  horse 
lifts  its  ear  at  a  frightful  object.  He  says  the  human 
race  were  originally  web-footed.  From  primal  germ 
to  tadpole,  from  tadpole  to  fish,  from  fish  to  reptile, 
from  reptile  to  wolf,  from  wolf  to  chimpanzee,  and 
from  chimpanzee  to  man.  Now,  if  anybody  says  that 
the  Bible  account  of  the  starting  of  the  human  race 
and  the  evolutionist  account  of  the  starting  of  the 
human  race  are  the  same  accounts,  he  makes  an  ap- 
palling misrepresentation. 

Prefer,  if  you  will,  Darwin's  "  Origin  of  the 
Species  "  to  the  book  of  Genesis,  but  know  you  are 
an  infidel.  As  for  myself,  as  Herbert  Spencer  was 
not  present  at  the  creation  and  the  Lord  Almighty 
was  present,  I  prefer  to  take  the  divine  account  as  to 
what  really  occurred  on  that  occasion.  To  show  that 
this  evolution  is  only  an  attempt  to  eject  God,  and 
to  postpone  Him  and  to  put  Him  clear  out  of  reach, 
I  ask  a  question  or  two.  The  baboon  made  the  man, 
and  the  wolf  made  the  baboon,  and  the  reptile  made 
the  quadruped,  and  the  fish  made  the  reptile,  and 
the  tadpole  made  the  fish,  and  the  primal  germ  made 
the  tadpole.  Who  made  the  primal  germ?  Most  of 
the  evolutionists  say  :  "  We  don't  know."  Others 
say  it  made  itself.  Others  say  it  was  spontaneous 
generation.  There  is  not  one  of  them  who  will  fairly 
and  openly,  and  frankly  and  emphatically  say,  "  God 
made  it." 

The  nearest  to  a  direct  answer  is  that  made  by 
Herbert  Spencer,  in  which  he  says  it  was  made  by 
the  great  "  unknowable  mystery."  But  here  comes 
Huxley  with  a  pail  of  protoplasm  to  explain  the 


256  EVOLUTION. 

thing.  This  protoplasm,  he  says,  is  primal  life  giving 
quality  with  which  the  race  away  back  in  the  ages 
was  started.  With  this  protoplasm  he  proposes  to 
explain  everything.  Dear  Mr.  Huxlev,  who  made 
the  protoplasm  ? 

To  show  you  that  evolution  is  infidel,  1  place  the 
Bible  account  of  how  the  brute  creation  was  started 
opposite  to  the  evolutionist's  account  of  the  way  the 
brute  creation  was  started.  Bible  account :  You 
know  the  Bible  tells  how  that  the  birds  were  made  at 
one  time,  and  the  cattle  made  at  another  time,  and 
the  fish  made  at  another  time,  and  that  each  brought 
forth  after  its  kind.  Evolutionist  account :  From 
four  or  five  primal  germs  or  seminal  spores  all  the 
living  creatures  evolved.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of 
species  of  insects,  of  reptiles,  of  beasts,  of  fish,  from 
four  germs — a  statement  flatly  contradicting,  not  only 
the  Bible,  but  the  very  A  B  C  of  science.  A  species 
never  develops  into  anything  but  its  own  species.  In 
all  the  ages,  and  in  all  the  world  there  has  never 
been  an  exception  to  it.  The  shark  never  comes  of  a 
whale,  nor  the  pigeon  of  a  vulture,  nor  the  butterfly 
of  a  wasp.  Species  never  cross  over.  If  there  be  an 
attempt  at  it,  it  is  hybrid  and  hybrid  is  always  sterile 
and  has  no  descendants. 

Agassiz  says  that  he  found  in  a  reef  of  Florida,  the 
remains  of  insects  thirty  thousand  years  old — not 
three,  but  thirty  thousand  years  old — and  that  they 
were  just  like  the  insects  now.  There  has  been  no 
change.  All  the  facts  of  ornithology  and  zoology, 
and  ichthyology  and  conchology,  but  an  echo  of 
Genesis  first,  and  twenty-first;  "  Every  winged  fowl 
after  his  kind."  Every  creature  after  its  kind.  When 
common  observation  and  science  corroborate  the 


EVOLUTION.  257 

Bible  I  will  not  stultify  myself  by  surrendering-  to  the 
elaborated  guesses  of  evolutionists. 

To  show  that  evolution  is  infidel  I  place  also  the 
Bible  account  of  how  worlds  were  made  opposite  the 
evolutionists'  account  of  how  worlds  were  made. 
Bible  account :  God  made  two  great  lights — the  one 
to  rule  the  day,  the  other  to  rule  the  night ;  He  made 
the  stars  also.  Evolutionist  account :  Away  back 
in  the  ages,  there  was  a  fire  mist,  or  star  dust,  and 
this  fire  mist  cooled  off  into  granite,  and  then  this 
granite  by  earthquake  and  by  storm,  and  by  light, 
was  shaped  into  mountains,  and  valleys,  and  seas,  and 
so  what  was  originally  fire  mist,  became  what  we  call 
the  earth. 

Who  made  the  fire  mist?  Who  set  the  fire  mist  to 
world  making?  Who  cooled  off  the  fire  mist  into 
granite?  You  have  pushed  God  some  sixty  or 
seventy  million  miles  from  the  earth,  but  He  is  too 
near  yet  for  the  health  of  evolution.  For  a  great 
while  the  evolutionists  boasted  that  they  had  found 
the  very  stuff  out  of  which  this  world  and  all  worlds 
were  made.  They  lifted  the  telescope  and  they  saw 
it,  the  very  material  out  of  which  worlds  made  them- 
selves. Nebula  of  simple  gas.  The}7  laughed  in  tri- 
umph because  they  had  found  the  factory  where  the 
worlds  were  manufactured,  and  there  was  no  God 
anywhere  around  the  factory!  But  in  an  unlucky 
hour  for  infidel  evolutionists  the  spectroscope  of 
Fraunhofer  and  Kirchoff  were  invented,  by  which 
they  saw  into  that  nebula,  and  found  it  was  not  a 
simple  gas,  but  was  a  compound,  and  hence  had  to 
be  supplied  from  some  other  source,  and  that  implied 
a  God,  and  away  went  their  theory,  shattered  into 

everlasting  demolition. 

17 


258  EVOLUTION. 

So  these  infidel  evolutionists  go  wandering  up  and 
down  guessing  through  the  universe.  Anything  to 
push  back  the  Jehovah  from  His  empire  and  make 
the  one  book  which  is  His  great  communication  to 
the  soul  of  the  human  race,  appear  obselete  and  a  de- 
rision. But  1  am  glad  to  know  that  while  some  of 
these  scientists  have  gone  into  evolution,  there  are 
more  that  do  not  believe  it.  Among  them,  the  man 
who  by  most  is  considered  the  greatest  scientist  we 
ever  had  this  side  the  water — Agassiz.  A  name 
that  makes  every  intelligent  man  the  earth  over 
uncover. 

Agassis  says :  "  The  manner  in  which  the  evolution 
theory  in  zoology  is  treated  would  lead  those  who 
are  not  special  zoologists  to  suppose  that  observations 
have  been  made  by  which  it  can  be  inferred  that 
there  is  in  nature  such  a  thing  as  change  among 
organized  beings  actually  taking  place.  There  is  no 
such  thing  on  record.  It  is  shifting  the  ground  of 
observation  from  one  field  of  observation  to  another 
to  make  this  statement,  and  when  the  assertions  go 
so  far  as  to  exclude  from  the  domain  of  science  those 
who  will  not  be  dragged  into  this  mire  of  mere  asser- 
tion, then  it  is  time  to  protest." 

With  equal  vehemence  against  this  doctrine  of  evo- 
lution Hugh  Miller,  Farraday,  Brewster,  Dana,  Daw- 
son,  and  hundreds  of  scientists  in  this  country  and 
other  countries  have  made  protest.  I  know  that  the 
few  men  who  have  adopted  the  theory  make  more 
noise  than  the  thousands  who  have  rejected  it.  The 
Bothnia  of  the  Cunard  Line  took  five  hundred  pas- 
sengers safely  from  New  York  to  Liverpool.  Not 
one  of  the  five  hundred  made  any  excitement.  But 
after  we  had  been  four  days  out,  one  morning  we 


EVOLUTION.  259 

found  on  deck  a  man's  hat  and  coat  and  vest  and 
boots,  implying  that  some  one  had  jumped  overboard. 
Forthwith  we  all  began  to  talk  about  that  one  man. 
There  was  more  talk  about  that  one  man  overboard 
than  all  the  five  hundred  passengers  that  rode  on  in 
safety.  " Why  did  he  jump  overboard ?  "  "I  won- 
der when  he  jumped  overboard?"  "I  wonder  if 
when  he  jumped  overboard  he  would  like  to  have 
jumped  back  again?"  "I  wonder  if  a  fish  caught 
him,  or  whether  he  went  clear  down  to  the  bottom  of 
the  sea?"  And  for  three  or  four  days  afterward  we 
talked  about  that  poor  man. 

Here  is  the  glorious  and  magnificent  theory  that 
God  by  His  omnipotent  power  made  man,  and  by 
His  omnipotent  power  made  the  brute  creation,  and 
by  His  omnipotent  power  made  all  -worlds,  and  five 
thousand  scientists  have  taken  passage  on  board  that 
magnificent  theory,  but  ten  or  fifteen  have  jumped 
overboard.  They  make  more  talk  than  all  the  five 
thousand  that  did  not  jump.  I  am  politely  asked  to 
jump  with  them.  Thank  you,  gentlemen,  I  am  very 
much  obliged  to  you.  I  think  I  shall  stick  to  the  old 
Cunarder.  If  you  want  to  jump  overboard,  jump, 
and  test  for  yourselves  whether  your  hand  was  really 
a  fish's  fin,  and  whether  you  were  web-footed  origi- 
nally, and  whether  your  lungs  are  a  swim  bladder. 
And  as  in  every  experiment  there  must  be  a  division 
of  labor,  some  who  experiment  and  some  who  observe, 
you  make  the  experiment,  and  I  will  observe. 

There  is  one  tenet  of  evolution  which  it  is  de- 
manded we  adopt,  that  which  Darwin  calls  "Natural 
Selection,"  and  that  which  Wallace  calls  the  "Sur- 
vival of  the  Fittest."  By  this  they  mean  that  the 
human  race  and  the  brute  creation  are  all  the  time 


260  EVOLUTION. 

improving,  because  the  weak  die  and  the  strong  live. 
Those  who  do  not  die  survive  because  they  are  the 
fittest.  They  say  the  breed  of  sheep  and  cattle,  and 
dogs,  and  men,  is  all  the  time  improving,  natural! v 
improving.  No  need  of  God,  or  any  Bible,  or  any 
religion,  but  just  natural  progress. 

You  see  the  race  started  with  "  spontaneous  gene- 
ration," and  then  it  goes  right  on  until  Darwin  can 
take  us  up  with  his  "  natural  selection,"  and  Wallace 
can  take  us  up  with  his  "  survival  of  the  fittest,"  and 
so  we  go  right  on  up  forever.  Beautiful !  But  do 
the  fittest  survive?  Garfield  dead  in  September — 
Guiteau  surviving  until  the  following  June.  "  Survi- 
val of  the  fittest?"  Ah  !  no.  The  martyrs,  religious  and 
political,  dying  for  their  principles,  their  bloody  per- 
secutors living  on  to  old  age.  "  Survival  of  the.  fit- 
test?" Five  hundred  thousand  brave  Northern  men 
marching  out  to  meet  five  hundred  thousand  brave 
Southern  men,  and  die  on  the  battlefield  for  a  prin- 
ciple. Hundreds  of  thousands  of  them  went  down 
into  the  grave  trenches.  We  staid  at  home  in  com- 
fortable quarters.  Did  they  die  because  they  were 
not  as  fit  to  live  as  we  who  survived  ?  Ah  !  no  ;  not 
the  "survival  of  the  fittest."  Ellsworth  and  Nathaniel 
Lyon  falling  on  the  Northern  side.  Albert  Sidney 
Johnston  and  Stonewall  Jackson  falling  on  the  South- 
ern side.  Did  they  fall  because  they  were  not  as  fit 
to  live  as  the  soldiers  and  the  generals  who  came 
back  in  safety  ?  No.  Bitten  with  the  frosts  of  the 
second  death  be  the  tongue  that  dares  utter  it !  It  is 
not  the  "  survival  of  the  fittest." 

How  has  it  been  in  the  families  of  the  world  ?  How 
was  it  with  the  child  physically  the  strongest,  intel- 
lectually the  brightest,  in  disposition  the  kindest? 


EVOLUTION.  26l 

Did  that  child  die  because  it  was  not  as  fit  to  live  as 
those  of  your  family  that  survived  ?  Not  the  "  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest."  In  all  communities  some  of  the 
noblest,  grandest  men  dying  in  youth,  or  in  mid-life, 
while  some  of  the  meanest  and  most  contemptible  live 
on  to  old  age.  Not  the  "  survival  of  the  fittest." 

But  to  show  you  that  this  doctrine  is  antagonistic  to 
the  Bible  and  to  common  sense,  I  have  only  to  prove 
to  you  that  there  has  been  no  natural  progress.  Vast 
improvement  from  another  source,  but  mind  you,  no 
natural  progress.  Where  is  the  fine  horse  in  any  of 
our  parks  whose  picture  of  eye  and  mane,  and  nostril 
and  neck,  and  haunches  is  worthy  of  being  compared 
to  Job's  picture  of  a  horse  as  he  thousands  of  years  ago 
heard  it  paw,  and  neigh  and  champ  its  bit  for  the 
battle  ?  Pigeons  of  to-day  not  so  wise  as  the  carrier 
pigeons  of  five  hundred  years  ago — pigeons  that  car- 
ried the  mails  from  army  to  army  and  from  city  to 
city ;  one  of  them  flung  into  the  sky  at  Rome  or 
Venice  landing  without  ship  or  rail  train  in  London. 

And  as  to  the  human  race,  so  far  as  mere  natural 
progress  is  concerned,  it  started  with  men  ten  feet 
high ;  now  the  average  is  about  five  feet  six  inches. 
It  started  with  men  living  two  hundred,  four  hun- 
dred, eight  hundred,  nine  hundred  years,  and  now 
thirty  years  is  more  than  the  average  of  human  life. 
Mighty  progress  we  have  made,  haven't  we  ?  I  went 
into  the  cathedral  at  York,  England,  and  the  best 
artists  in  England  had  just  been  painting  a  window 
in  that  cathedral,  and  right  beside  it  was  a  window 
painted  four  hundred  years  ago,  and  there  is  not  a 
man  on  earth  but  would  say  that  the  modern  paint- 
ing of  the  window  by  the  best  artists  of  England  is 
not  worthy  of  being  compared  with  the  painting  of 


262  EVOLUTION. 

four  hundred  years  ago  right  beside  it.  Vast  im- 
provement, as  I  shall  show  you  in  a  minute  or  two, 
but  no  natural  evolution. 

I  tell  you,  my  friends,  that  natural  evolution  is  not 
upward,  but  it  is  always  downward.  Hear  Christ's 
account  of  it.  Fifteenth  Matthew,  and  nineteenth 
verse:  ''Out  of  the  heart  proceed  evil  thoughts, 
murders,  adulteries,  fornications,  thefts,  false  witness, 
blasphemies."  That  is  what  Christ  said  of  Evolution. 
Give  natural  evolution  full  swing  in  our  world  and 
it  will  evolve  into  two  hemispheres  of  crime,  two 
hemispheres  of  penitentiary,  two  hemispheres  of 
lazaretto,  two  hemispheres  of  brothel.  New  York 
Tombs,  Moyamensing  Prison,  Philadelphia;  Seven 
Dials,  London,  and  Cowgate,  Edinburgh,  only  fester- 
ing carbuncles  on  the  face  and  neck  of  natural  evolu- 
tion. See  what  the  Bible  says  about  the  heart,  and 
then  what  evolution  says  about  the  heart.  Evolution 
says,  "Better  and  better  and  better  gets  the  heart  by 
natural  improvement."  The  Bible  says:  "The  heart 
is  deceitful  above  all  things,  and  desperately  wicked." 
Who  can  know  it?  When  you  can  evolve  fragrance 
from  malodor,  and  can  evolve  an  oratorio  from  a 
buzz-saw,  and  can  evolve  fall  pippins  from  a  basket 
of  decayed  crab  apples,  then  you  can  by  natural  evo- 
lution from  the  human  heart  develop  goodness.  Ah  ! 
my  friends,  evolution  is  always  downward ;  it  is  never 
upward. 

What  is  remarkable  about  this  thing  is,  it  is  all  the 
time  developing  its  dishonesty.  In  our  day  it  is 
ascribing  this  evolution  to  Herbert  Spencer  and 
Charles  Darwin.  It  is  a  dishonesty.  Evolution  was 
known  and  advocated  hundreds  of  years  before  these 
gentlemen  began  to  be  evolved.  The  Phoenicians, 


EVOLUTION.  263 

thousands  of  years  ago,  declared  that  the  human  race 
wobbled  out  of  the  mud.  Democritus,  who  lived 
460  years  before  Christ — remember  that — knew  this 
doctrine  of  evolution,  when  he  said :  "  Everything 
is  composed  of  atoms,  or  infinitely  small  elements, 
each  with  a  definite  quality,  form  and  movement, 
whose  inevitable  union  and  separation,  shape  all  dif- 
ferent things  and  forms,  laws  and  efforts,  and  dissolve 
them  again  for  new  combinations.  The  gods  them- 
selves and  the  human  mind  originated  from  such 
atoms.  There  are  no  casualties.  Everything  is  neces- 
sary and  determined  by  the  nature  of  the  atoms  which 
have  certain  mutual  affinities,  attractions,  and  repul. 
sions."  Anoximander,  centuries  ago,  declares  that 
the  human  race  started  at  the  place  where  the  sea 
saturated  the  earth.  Lucretius  develops  long  cen- 
turies ago,  in  his  poems,  the  doctrine  of  evolution. 

It  is  an  old  heathen  corpse  set  up  in  a  morgue. 
Charles  Darwin  and  Herbert  Spencer  are  trying  to 
galvanize  it.  They  drag  this  old  putrefaction  of  three 
thousand  years  around  the  earth,  boasting  that  it  is  their 
originality,  and  so  wonderful  is  the  infatuation  that 
at  the  Delmonico  dinner  given  in  honor  of  Herbert 
Spencer  there  were  those  who  ascribed  to  him  this 
great  originality  of  evolution.  There  the  banqueters 
sat  around  the  table  in  honor  of  Herbert  Spencer, 
chewing  beef  and  turkey  and  roast  pig,  which,  ac- 
cording to  their  doctrine  of  evolution,  made  them 
eating  their  own  relations  ! 

There  is  only  one  thing  worse  than  Englisii  snobbery, 
and  that  is  American  snobbery.  I  like  democracy 
and  I  like  aristocracy  ;  but  there  is  one  kind  of  ocracy 
in  this  country  that  excites  my  contempt,  and  that  is 
what  Charles  Kingsley,  after  he  had  witnessed  it 


264  INVOLUTION. 

himself,  called  snobocracy.  •  Now  1  say  it  is  a  gigan- 
tic dishonesty  when  they  ascribe  this  old  heathen 
doctrine  of  evolution  to  any  modern  gentleman. 
1  am  not  a  pessimist  but  an  optimist.  I  do  not  be- 
lieve everything  is  going  to  destruction  ;  I  believe 
everything  is  going  on  to  redemption.  But  it  will 
not  be  through  the  infidel  doctrine  of  evolution,  but 
through  our  glorious  Christianity  which  has  effected 
all  the  good  that  has  ever  been  wrought,  and  which 
is  yet  to  reconstruct  all  the  nations. 


The  Female  Hottentot. 


The  Female  Gorilla. 


THE  MISSING  LINK. 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

THE   MISSING   LINK. 

It  seems  to  me  that  evolutionists  are  trying  to  im- 
press the  great  masses  of  the  people  with  the  idea 
that  there  is  an  ancestral  line  leading  from  the  primal 
germ  on  up  through  the  serpent,  and  on  up  through 
the  quadruped,  and  on  up  through  the  gorilla  to  man. 
They  admit  that  there  is  "  a  missing  link,"  as  they 
call  it,  but  there  is  not  a  missing  link — it  is  a  whole 
chain  gone.  Between  the  physical  construction  of 
the  highest  animal  and  the  physical  construction  of 
the  lowest  man,  there  is  a  chasm  as  wide  as  the  At- 
lantic Ocean. 

Evolutionists  tell  us  that  somewhere  in  Central 
Africa,  or  in  Borneo,  there  is  a  creature  half-way 
between  the  brute  and  the  man,  and  that  that  creat- 
ure is  the  highest  step  in  the  animal  ascent,  and  the 
lowest  step  in  the  human  creation.  But  what  are  the 
facts  ?  The  brain  of  the  largest  gorilla  that  was  ever 
•  found  is  thirty  cubic  inches,  while  the  brain  of  the 
most  ignorant  man  that  was  ever  found  is  seventy. 
Vast  difference  between  thirty  and  seventy.  It 
needs  a  bridge  of  forty  arches  to  span  that  gulf. 

Beside  that,  there  is  a  difference  between  the 
gorilla  and  the  man — a  difference  of  blood  globule,  a  dif- 
ference of  nerve,  a  difference  of  muscle,  a  difference 
of  bone,  a  difference  of  sinew.  The  horse  is  more 
like  man  in  intelligence,  the  bird  is  more  like  him  in 

267 


26,9  THE    MISSING   LINK. 

musical  capacity,  the  mastiff  more  like  him  in  affec- 
tion. That  eulogized  beast  of  which  we  hear  so 
much,  represented  on  the  walls  of  ancient  cities 
thousands  of  years  ago,  is  just  as  complete  as  it  is 
now,  showing  that  there  has  not  been  a  particle  of 
change. 

Beside  that,  if  a  pair  of  apes  had  a  man  for  descend- 
ant, why  would  not  all  the  apes  have  the  same  kind 
of  descendants?  Can  it  be  that  that  one  favored 
pair  only  was  honored  with  human  progeny?  Be- 
side that,  evolution  says  that  as  one  species  rises  to 
another  species,  the  old  type  dies  off.  Then  how  is 
it  that  there  are  whole  kingdoms  of  chimpanzee  and 
gorilla  and  baboon  ? 

The  evolutionists  have  come  together  and  have 
tried  to  explain  a  bird's  wing.  Their  theory  has  al- 
ways been  that  a  faculty  of  an  animal  while  being 
developed  must  always  be  useful,  and  always  bene- 
ficial, but  the  wing  of  a  bird,  in  the  thousands  of 
years  it  was  being  developed,  so  far  from  being  any 
help,  must  have  been  a  hindrance,  until  it  could  be 
brought  into  practical  use  away  on  down  in  the  ages. 
Must  there  not  have  been  an  intelligent  will  some- 
where that  formed  that  wonderful  flving  instrument, 
so  that  a  bird  five  hundred  times  heavier  than  the  air, 
can  mount  it  and  put  gravitation  under  claw  and 
beak?  That  wonderful  mechanical  instrument,  the 
wing,  with  between  twenty  and  thirty  different  ap- 
parati  curiously  constructed,  does  it  not  imply  a 
divine  intelligence?  Does  it  not  imply  a  direct  act  of 
some  outside  being  ?  All  the  evolutionists  in  the  world 
cannot  explain  a  bird's  wing,  or  an  insect's  wing. 

So  they  are  confounded  by  the  rattle  of  the  rattle- 
snake. Ages  before  that  reptile  had  any  enemies, 


THE    MISSING   LINK.  269 

this  warning  weapon  was  created.  Why  was  it 
created  ?  When  the  reptile  far  back  in  the  ages  had 
no  enemies,  why  this  warning  weapon  ?  There  must 
have  been  a  divine  intelligence  foreseeing  and  know- 
ing that  in  the  ages  to  come  that  reptile  would  have 
enemies,  and  then  this  warning  weapon  would  be 
brought  into  use.  You  see  evolution  at  every  step  is 
a  contradiction  or  a  monstrosity.  At  every  stage  of 
animal  life,  as  well  as  at  every  stage  of  human  life, 
there  is  evidence  of  direct  action  of  divine  will. 

Beside  that,  it  is  very  evident  from  another  fact 
that  we  are  an  entirely  different  creation,  and  that  there 
is  no  kinship.  The  animal  in  a  few  hours  or  months 
comes  to  full  strength  and  can  take  care  of  itself. 
The  human  race  for  the  first  one,  two,  three,  five,  ten 
years,  is  incomplete  helplessness.  The  chick  just 
come  out  of -its  shell  begins  to  pick  up  its  own  food. 
The  dog,  the  wolf,  the  lion,  soon  earn  their  own  liveli- 
hood and  act  for  their  own  defence.  The  human 
race  does  not  come  to  development  until  twenty  or 
thirty  years  of  age,  and  by  that  time  the  animals  that 
were  born  the  same  year  the  man  was  born — the 
vast  majority  of  them — have  died  of  old  age.  This 
shows  there  is  no  kinship,  there  is  no  similarity.  If 
we  had  been  born  of  the  beast,  we  would  have  had 
the  beast's  strength  at  the  start,  or  it  would  have  had 
our  weakness.  Not  only  different  but  opposite. 

Darwin  admits  that  the  dovecote  pigeon  has  not 
changed  in  thousands  of  years.  It  is  demonstrated 
over  and  over  again  that  the  lizard  on  the  lowest 
formation  of  rocks  was  just  as  complete  as  the  lizard 
now.  It  is  shown  that  the  ganoid,  the  first  fish,  was 
just  as  complete  as  the  sturgeon,  another  name  for 
the  same  fish  now.  Darwin's  entire  system  is  a  guess, 


2/0  flip:    MISSING   LINK. 

and  Huxley,  and  John  Stuart  Mill,  and  Tyndall,  and 
especially  Professor  Heckel,  come  to  help  him  in  the 
guess,  and  guess  about  the  brute,  and  guess  about 
man,  and  guess  about  worlds,  but  as  to  having  one 
solid  foot  of  ground  to  stand  on,  they  never  have  had 
it  and  never  will  have  it. 

I  put  in  opposition  to  these  evolutionist  theories 
the  imvard  consciousness  that  we  have  no  consan- 
guinity with  the  dog  that  fawns  at  our  feet,  or  the 
spider  that  crawls  on  the  wall,  or  the  fish  that  flops 
in  the  frying  pan,  or  the  crow  that  swoops  on  the 
Field  carcass,  or  the  swine  that  wallows  in  the  mire. 
Everybody  sees  the  outrage  it  would  be  to  put  beside 
the  Bible  record  that  Abraham  begat  Isaac,  and 
Isaac  begat  Jacob,  and  Jacob  begat  Judah,  the  record 
that  the  microscopic  animalculae  begat  the  tadpole, 
and  the  tadpole  begat  the  poly  wog,  and  the  poly  wog 
begat  the  serpent,  and  the  serpent  begat  the  quad- 
ruped, and  the  quadruped  begat  the  baboon,  and  the 
baboon  begat  man. 

The  evolutionists  tell  us  that  the  apes  were  origi- 
nally fond  of  climbing  the  trees,  but  after  a  while  they 
lost  their  prehensile  power,  and  therefore  could  not 
climb  with  any  facility,  and  hence  they  surrendered 
monkeydom  and  set  up  in  business  as  men.  Failures 
as  apes,  successes  as  men.  According  to  the  evolu- 
tionists a  man  is  a  bankrupt  monkey !  I  pity  the 
person  who  in  every  nerve  and  muscle  and  bone  and 
mental  faculty  and  spiritual  experience  does  not  real- 
ize that  he  is  higher  in  origin,  and  has  had  a  grander 
ancestry  than  the  beasts  which  perish.  However  de- 
graded men  and  women  may  be,  and  though  they 
may  have  foundered  on  the  rocks  of  crime  and  sin, 
and  though  we  shudder  as  we  pass  them,  neverthe- 


THE   MISSING   LINK.  2/1 

less,  there  is  something  within  us  that  tells  us  they 
belong  to  the  same  great  brotherhood  and  sisterhood 
of  our  race,  and  our  sympathies  are  aroused  in  regard 
to  them.  But  gazing  upon  the  swiftest  gazelle,  or 
upon  the  tropical  bird  of  most  flamboyant  wing,  or 
upon  the  curve  of  grandest  courser's  neck,  we  feel 
there  is  no  consanguinity.  The  grandest,  the  highest, 
the  noblest  of  them  is  ten  thousand  fathoms  below 
what  we  are  conscious  of  being. 

It  is  not  that  we  are  stronger  than  they,  for  the 
lion  with  one  stroke  of  his  paw  could  put  us  into  the 
dust.  It  is  not  that  we  have  better  eyesight,  for  the 
eagle  can  descry  a  mole  a  mile  away.  It  is  not  that 
we  are  fleeter  of  foot,  for  a  roebuck  in  a  flash  is  out 
of  sight,  just  seeming  to  touch  the  earth  as  he  goes. 
Many  of  the  animal  creation  surpass  us  in  fleetness 
of  foot  and  in  keenness  of  nostril,  and  in  strength 
of  limb  ;  but  notwithstanding  all  that,  there  is  some- 
thing within  us  that  tells  us  we  are  of  celestial  pedi- 
gree. Not  of  the  mollusk,  not  of  the  rizipod,  not  of 
the  primal  germ,  but  of  the  living  and  omnipotent 
God.  Lineage  of  the  skies.  Genealogy  of  Heaven. 

I  tell  you  plainly,  that  if  your  father  was  a  musk- 
rat  and  your  mother  an  opossum,  and  your  great 
aunt  a  kangaroo,  and  the  toads  and  the  snapping  tur- 
tles were  your  illustrious  predecessors,  my  father 
was  God.  I  know  it.  I  feel  it.  It  thrills  through 
me  with  an  emphasis  and  an  ecstasy  which  all  your 
arguments  drawn  from  anthropology  and  biology  and 
zoology  and  morology  and  paleontology  and  all  the 
other  ologies,  can  never  shake. 

Evolution  is  one  great  mystery.  It  hatches  out 
fifty  mysteries,  and  the  fifty  hatch  out  a  thousand, 
and  the  thousand  hatch  out  a  million.  Why,  my 


272  THE    MISSINd    LINK. 

brother,  not  admit  the  one  great  mystery  of  God,  and 
have  that  settle  all  the  other  mysteries?  I  can  more 
easily  appreciate  the  fact  that  God,  by  one  stroke  of 
His  omnipotence  could  make  man,  than  I  could 
realize  ho\v,  out  of  five  millions  of  ages,  He  could 
have  evolved  one,  putting  on  a  little  here  and  a  little 
there.  It  would  have  been  just  as  great  a  miracle 
for  God  to  have  turned  an  orang-outang  into  a  man 
as  to  make  a  man  out  and  out — the  one  job  just  as  big 
as  the  other. 

It  seems  to  me  we  had  better  let  God  have  a  little 
place  in  our  world  somewhere.  It  seems  to  me  if  we 
cannot  have  Him  make  all  creatures,  we  had  better 
have  Him  make  two  or  three.  There  ought  to  be 
some  place  where  He  could  stay  without  interfering 
with  the  evolutionists.  "  No,"  says  Darwin,  and  so 
for  years  he  is  trying  to  raise  fan-tailed  pigeons,  and 
to  turn  these  fan-tail  pigeons  into  some  other  kind  of 
pigeon,  or  to  have  them  go  into  something  that  is  not 
a  pigeon — turning  them  into  quail,  or  barnyard  fowl, 
or  brown  thresher.  But  pigeon  it  is.  And  others 
have  tried  with  the  ox  and  the  dog  and  the  horse, 
but  they  stayed  in  their  species.  If  they  attempt  to 
cross  over  it  is  a  hybrid,  and  a  hybrid  is  always  sterile 
and  goes  into  extinction.  There  has  been  only  one 
successful  attempt  to  pass  over  from  speechless  ani- 
mal to  the  articulation  of  man,  and  that  was  the  at- 
tempt which  Baalam  witnessed  in  the  beast  that  he 
rode ;  but  an  angel  of  the  Lord,  with  drawn  sword, 
soon  stopped  that  long-eared  evolutionist. 

But,  says  some  one,  "If  we  can  not  have  God  make 
a  man  let  us  have  Him  make  a  horse."  "  Oh,  no!" 
says  Huxley,  in  his  great  lectures  in  New  York  several 
years  ago.  No,  he  does  not  want  any  God  around 


THE   MISSING   LINK.  2/3 

the  premises.  God  did  not  make  the  horse.  The 
horse  came  of  the  pliohippus,  and  the  pliohippus 
came  from  the  protohippus,  and  the  protohippus 
came  from  the  mio-hippus,  and  the  mio-hippus  came 
from  the  meshohippus,  and  the  meshohippus  came 
from  the  orohippus,  and  so  away  back,  all  the  living 
creatures,  we  trace  it  in  a  line,  until  we  get  to  the 
moneron,  and  no  evidence  of  divine  intermeddling 
with  the  creation  until  you  get  to  the  moneron,  and 
that,  Huxley  says,  is  of  so  low  a  form  of  life  that  the 
probability  is  it  just  made  itself,  or  was  the  result  of 
spontaneous  generation.  What  a  narrow  escape  from 
the  necessity  of  having  a  God. 

As  near  as  I  can  tell,  these  evolutionists  seem  to 
think  that  God  at  the  start  had  not  made  up  His  mind 
as  to  exactly  what  He  would  make,  and  having  made 
up  his  mind  partially.  He  has  been  changing  it  all 
through  the  ages.  I  believe  God  made  the  world  as 
He  wanted  to  have  it,  and  that  the  happiness  of  all 
the  species  will  depend  upon  their  staying  in  the 
species  where  they  were  created. 

But,  my  friends,  evolution  is  not  only  infidel  and 
atheistic  and  absurd  ;  it  is  brutalizing  in  its  tendencies. 
If  there  is  anything  in  the  world  that  will  make  a 
man  bestial  in  his  habits  it  is  the  idea  that  he  was 
descended  from  the  beast.  Why,  according  to  the 
idea  of  these  evolutionists,  we  are  only  a  superior 
kind  of  cattle,  a  sort  of  Alderney  among  other  herds. 
To  be  sure,  we  browse  on  better  pasture,  and  we 
have  better  stall  and  better  accommodations,  but  then 
we  are  only  Southdowns  among  the  great  flocks  of 
sheep.  Born  of  a  beast,  to  die  like  a  beast ;  for  the 
evolutionists  have  no  idea  of  a  future  world.  The y 
say  the  mind  is  only  a  superior  part  of  the  body. 

18 


274  THE  MISSIM;  LINK. 

They  say  our  thoughts  are  only  molecular  formation. 
They  say  when  the  body  dies,  the  whole  nature  dies. 
The  slab  of  the  sepulchre  is  not  a  milestone  on  a 
journey  upward,  but  a  wall  shutting  us  into  eternal 
nothingness.  We  all  die  alike — the  cow,  the  horse, 
the  sheep,  the  man,  the  reptile.  Annihilation  is  the 
heaven  of  the  evolutionist. 

From  such  a  stench ful  and  damnable  doctrine  turn 
away.  Compare  that  idea  of  your  origin — an  idea 
filled  with  the  chatter  of  apes,  and  the  hiss  of  ser- 
pents, and  the  croak  of  frogs — to  an  idea  in  one  or 
two  stanzas  which  I  shall  read  to  you  from  an  old 
book  of  more  than  Demosthenic,  or  Homeric,  or 
Dantesque  power:  "What  is  man,  that  xthou  art 
mindful  of  him  ?  and  the  son  of  man,  that  thou  visit- 
est  him  ?  Thou  hast  made  him  a  little  lower  than 
the  angels,  and  hast  crowned  him  with  glory  and 
honor.  Thou  madest  him  to  have  dominion  over 
the  works  of  thy  hand ;  thou  hast  put  all  things 
under  his  feet.  All  sheep  and  oxen,  yea,  and  the 
beasts  of  the  field  ;  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  the  fish 
of  the  sea,  and  whatsoever  passeth  through  the  paths 
of  the  seas.  Oh,  Lord,  our  Lord,  how  excellent  is 
Thy  name  in  all  the  earth." 

How  do  you  like  that  origin?  The  lion  the  mon- 
arch of  the  field,  the  eagle  the  monarch  of  the  air, 
behemoth  the  monarch  of  the  deep,  but  man  monarch 
of  all.  Ah!  my  friends,  I  have  to  say  to  you  that  I 
am  not  so  anxious  to  know  what  was  my  origin  as  to 
know  what  will  be  my  destiny.  I  do  not  care  so 
much  where  I  came  from  as  where  I  am  going  to.  I 
am  not  so  interested  in  who  was  my  ancestry  ten 
million  years  ago  as  I  am  to  know  where  I  will  be 
ten  million  years  from  now.  I  am  not  so  much  inter- 


THE    MISSING   LINK.  2/$ 

ested  in  the  preface  lo  my  cradle  as  I  am  interested 
in  the  appendix  to  my  grave.  I  do  not  care  so  much 
about  protoplasm  as  I  do  about  eternasm.  The  "  was  " 
is  overwhelmed  with  the  "to  be."  And  here  comes 
in  the  evolution  I  believe  in  :  not  natural  evolution, 
but  gracious  and  divine  and  heavenly  evolution — evo- 
lution out  of  sin  into  holiness,  out  of  grief  into  glad- 
ness, out  of  mortality  into  immortality,  out  of  earth 
into  heaven  !  That  is  the  evolution  I  believe  in. 

Evolution  from  evolvere,  unrolling !  Unrolling  of 
attributes,  unrolling  of  rewards,  unrolling  of  exper- 
ience, unrolling  of  angelic  companionship,  unrolling 
of  divine  glory,  unrolling  of  providential  obscurities, 
unrolling  of  doxologies,  unrolling  of  rainbow  to 
canopy  the  throne,  unrolling  of  a  new  heaven  and  a 
new  earth  in  which  to  dwell  righteousness.  Oh,  the 
thought  overwhelms  me.  I  have  not  the  physical 
endurance  to  consider  it. 

Monarchs  on  earth  of  all  lower  orders  of  creation, 
and  then  lifted  to  be  hierarchs  in  Heaven.  Master- 
piece of  God's  wisdom  and  goodness,  our  humanity ; 
masterpiece  of  divine  grace,  our  enthronement.  I 
put  one  foot  on  Darwin's  "  Origin  of  the  Species," 
and  I  put  the  other  foot  on  Spencer's  "  Biology,"  and 
then  holding  in  one  hand  the  book  of  Moses  1  see  our 
Genesis,  and  holding  in  the  other  hand  the  book  of 
Revelation,  I  see  our  celestial  arrival.  For  all  wars 
I  prescribe  the  Bethlehem  chant  of  the  angels.  For 
all  sepulchres  1  prescribe  the  archangel's  trumpet. 
For  all  the  earthly  griefs  I  prescribe  the  hand  that, 
wipes  away  all  tears  from  all  eyes.  Not  an  evolution 
from  beast  to  man,  but  an  evolution  from  contestant  /<> 
conqueror,  and  from  the  struggle  with  wild  beasts  in 
the  arena  of  the  amphitheatre  to  a  soft,  high,  blissful 
seat  in  the  King's  galleries. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

EVANGELISM   VINDICATED. 

Domitian,  the  Roman  Emperor,  had  in  his  realm 
a  troublesome  evangelist  who  would  keep  preaching, 
and  so  he  exiled  him  to  a  barren  island,  as  now  the 
Russians  exile  convicts  to  Siberia,  or  as  sometimes 
the  English  Government  used  to  send  prisoners  to 
Australia.  The  island  I  speak  of  is  now  called  Pat- 
mos,  and  is  so  barren  and  unproductive  that  its 
inhabitants  live  by  fishing. 

But  one  day  the  evangelist  of  whom  I  speak,  sit- 
ting at  the  mouth  of  a  cavern  on  the  hill-side,  and 
perhaps  half  asleep  under  the  drone  of  the  sea,  has  a 
supernatural  dream,  and  before  him  pass,  as  in  pano- 
rama, time  and  eternity.  Among  the  strange  things 
that  he  saw  was  an  angel  with  a  little  book  in  his 
hand,  and  in  his  dream  the  evangelist  asked  for  this 
little  book,  and  the  angel  gave  it  to  him,  and  told 
him  to  eat  it  up.  As  in  a  dream  things  are  sometimes 
incongruous,  the  evangelist  took  the  little  book  and 
ate  it  up.  The  angel  told  him  beforehand  that  it 
would  be  very  sweet  in  the  mouth,  but  afterward  he 
would  be  troubled  with  indigestion.  True  enough, 
the  evangelist  devours  the  book,  and  it  becomes  to 
him  a  sweetness  during  the  mastication,  but  after- 
ward a  physical  bitterness. 

Who  the  angel  was  and  what  the  book  was  no  one 
can  tell.  The  commentators  do  not  agree,  and  I  shall 

276 


EVANGELISM   VINDICATED.  277 

take  no  responsibility  of  interpretation,  but  will  tell 
you  that  it  suggests  to  me  the  little  book  of  creeds, 
which  skeptics  take  and  chew  up  and  find  a  very 
luscious  morsel  to  their  witticism,  but  after  awhile 
it  is  to  them  a  great  distress.  The  angel  of  the 
church  hands  out  this  little  book  of  evangelism,  and 
the  antagonists  of  the  Christian  Church  take  it  and 
eat  it  up,  and  it  makes  them  smile  at  first,  but  after- 
ward it  is  to  them  a  dire  dyspepsia. 

All  intelligent  people  have  creeds — that  is,  favorite 
theories  which  they  have  adopted.  Political  creeds 
—that  is,  theories  about  tariff,  about  finance,  about 
civil  service,  about  government.  Social  creeds — 
that  is,  theories  about  manners  and  customs  and 
good  neighborhood.  ^Esthetical  creeds — that  is, 
theories  about  tapestry,  about  bric-a-brac,  about  styles 
of  ornamentation.  Religious  creeds — that  is,  theories 
about  the  Deity,  about  the  soul,  about  the  great 
future.  The  only  being  who  has  no  creed  about  any- 
thing is  the  idiot.  This  scoffing  against  creeds  is 
always  a  sign  of  profound  ignorance  on  the  part  of 
the  scoffer,  for  he  has  himself  a  hundred  creeds  in 
regard  to  other  things.  In  our  time  the  beliefs  of  evan- 
gelistic churches  are  under  a  fusilade  of  caricature 
and  misrepresentation.  Men  set  up  what  they  call 
orthodox  faith,  and  then  they  rake  it  with  the  mus- 
ketry of  their  denunciation.  They  falsify  what  the 
Christian  churches  believe.  They  take  evangelical 
doctrines  and  set  them  in  a  harsh  and  repulsive  way, 
and  put  them  out  of  the  association  with  other  truths. 
They  are  like  a  mad  anatomist  who,  desiring  to  tell 
what  a  man  is,  dissects  a  human  body  and  hangs  up 
in  one  place  the  heart,  and  in  another  place  the  two 
lungs,  and  in  another  place  an  ankle  bone,  and  says 


2/8  EVANGELISM   VINDICATED. 

that  is  a  man.     They  are  only   fragments  of  a  man 
wrenched  out  of  their  God-appointed  places. 

Evangelical  religion  is  a  healthy,  symmetrical,  well- 
jointed,  roseate,  bounding  life,  and  the  scalpel  and 
dissecting  knife  of  the  infidel  or  the  atheist  cannot 
tell  you  what  it  is.  Evangelical  religion  is  as  differ-- 
ent  from  what  it  is  represented  to  be  by  these  ene- 
mies, as  the  scarecrow,  which  the  farmer  puts  in  the 
cornfield  to  keep  off  the  ravens,  is  different  from  the 
farmer  himself. 

For  instance,  these  enemies  of  evangelism  say  that 
the  Presbyterian  Church  believes  that  God  is  a  sav- 
age sovereign,  and  that  He  made  some  men  just  to 
damn  them,  and  that  there  are  infants  in  hell  a  span 
long.  These  old  slanders  come  down  from  genera- 
tion to  generation.  The  Presbyterian  Church  be- 
lieves no  such  thing.  The  Presbyterian  Church 
believes  that  God  is  a  loving  and  just  sovereign,  and 
that  we  are  free  agents.  "  No,  no !  that  cannot  be," 
say  these  men  who  have  chewed  up  the  creed,  and 
have  the  consequent  embittered  stomachs.  "  That  is 
impossible  ;  if  God  is  a  sovereign,  we  can't  be  free 
agents."  Why,  my  friends,  we  admit  this  in  every 
other  direction.  I,  De  Witt  Talmage,  am  a  free  cit- 
izen of  Brooklyn.  I  go  when  I  please,  and  I  come 
when  I  please,  but  I  have  at  least  four  sovereigns. 
The  Church  Court  of  our  denomination ;  that  is  my 
ecclesiastical  sovereign.  The  mayor  of  this  city  ;  he 
is  my  municipal  sovereign.  The  governor  of  New 
York;  he  is  my  state  sovereign.  The  president 
of  the  United  States  ;  he  is  my  national  sovereign. 
Four  sovereigns  have  I,  and  yet  in  every  faculty  of 
body,  mind,  and  soul,  I  am  a  free  man.  So,  you  see, 
it  is  possible  that  the  two  doctrines  go  side  by  side, 


EVANGELISM   VINDICATED.  2/9 

and  there  is  a  common-sense  way  of  presenting  it,  and 
there  is  a  way  that  is  repulsive.  If  you  have  the  two 
doctrines  in  a  worldly  direction,  why  not  in  a  reli- 
gious direction  ?  If  I  choose  to-morrow  morning  to 
walk  into  the  Mercantile  Library,  and  improve  my 
mind,  or  to  go  through  the  conservatory  of  my 
friend  at  Jamaica,  who  has  flowers  from  all  lands 
growing  under  the  arches  of  glass,  and  who  has  an 
aquarium  all  a-squirm  with  trout  and  gold  fish,  and 
there  are  trees  bearing  oranges  and  bananas — if  I  want 
to  go  there,  I  could.  I  am  free  to  go.  If  I  want  to  go 
over  to  Hoboken,  and  leap  into  a  furnace  of  an  oil  fac- 
torv,  if  I  want  to  jump  from  the  platform  of  the  Phila- 
delphia express  train,  if  I  want  to  leap  from  Brooklyn 
bridge,  I  may.  But  suppose  I  should  go  to-morrow, 
and  leap  into  the  furnace  at  Hoboken,  who  would  be  to 
blame  ?  That  is  all  there  is  about  sovereignty  and 
free  agency.  God  rules  and  reigns,  and  He  has  con- 
servatories, and  He  has  blast  furnaces.  If  you  want 
to  walk  in  the  gardens,  walk  there.  If  you  want  to 
leap  into  the  furnaces,  you  may. 

Suppose  now,  a  man  had  a  charmed  key  with 
which  he  could  open  all  the  jails,  and  he  should  open 
Raymond  Street  Jail,  and  the  New  York  Tombs, 
and  all  the  prisons  on  the  continent.  In  three  weeks 
what  kind  of  a  country  would  this  be?  all  the  inmates 
turned  out  of  those  prisons  and  penitentiaries.  Sup- 
pose all  the  reprobates,  the  bad  spirits,  the  outrageous 
spirits,  should  be  turned  into  the  New  Jerusalem. 
Why,  the  next  morning  the  gates  of  pearl  would  be 
found  off  hinge,  the  linchpin  would  be  gone  out  of 
the  chariot  wheels,  the  "  house  of  many  mansions  " 
would  be  burglarized.  Assault  and  battery,  arson, 
libertinism,  and  assassination  would  reside  in  the 


280  EVANGELISM    VINDICATED. 

capital  of  the  skies.  Angels  of  God  would  be  in- 
sulted on  the  streets.  Heaven  would  be  a  dead  fail- 
ure if  there  were  no  great  lock-up,  if  all  people, 
without  regard  to  their  character,  when  they  leave 
this  world,  go  right  into  glory. 

1  wonder  if,  in  the  temple  of  the  skies,  Charles 
Guiteau  and  John  Wilkes  Booth  occupy  the  same 
pew!  Your  common-sense  demands  two  destinies! 
And  then,  as  to  the  Presbyterian  Church  believing 
there  are  infants  in  perdition,  if  you  will  bring  me  a 
Presbyterian  of  good  morals  and  sound  mind  who 
will  say  that  he  believes  there  ever  was  a  baby  in  the 
lost  world,  or  ever  will  be,  I  will  make  him  a  deed  to 
all  my  property,  and  he  can  take  possession  to- 
morrow. 

So  the  Episcopalian  Church  is  misrepresented  by- 
the  enemies  of  evangelism.  They  say  thai,  church  sub- 
stitutes forms  and  ceremonies  for  heart  religion,  and 
it  is  all  a  matter  of  liturgy  and  genuflexion.  False 
again.  All  Episcopalians  will  tell  you  that  the  forms 
and  creeds  of  their  church  are  worse  than  nothing 
unless  the  heart  go  with  them. 

So  also  the  Baptist  Church  has  been  misrepresented. 
The  enemies  of  evangelism  say  the  Baptist  Church 
believes  that  unless  a  man  is  immersed  he  will  never 
get  into  heaven.  False  again.  All  the  Baptists,  close 
communion  and  open  communion,  believe  that  if  a 
man  accept  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  he  will  be  saved, 
whether  he  be  baptized  by  one  drop  of  water  on  the 
forehead,  or  be  plunged  into  the  Ohio  or  Susque- 
hanna,  although  immersion  is  the  only  gate  by  which 
one  enters  their  earthly  communion. 

The  enemies  of  evangelism  also  misrepresent  the 
Methodist  Church.  They  say  the  Methodist  Church 


EVANGELISM   VINDICATED.  28 1 

believes  that  a  man  can  convert  himself,  and  that  con- 
version in  that  church  is  a  temporary  emotion,  and 
that  all  a  man  has  to  do  is  to  kneel  down  at  the  altar 
and  feel  bad,  and  then  the  minister  pats  him  on  the 
back  and  says,  "  It  is  all  right,"  and  that  is  all  there  is 
of  it.  False  again.  The  Methodist  Church  believes 
that  the  Holy  Ghost  alone  can  convert  a  heart,  and 
in  that  church  conversion  is  an  earthquake  of  convic- 
tion, and  a  sunburst  of  pardon.  And  as  to  mere 
"  temporary  emotion,"  I  wish  we  all  had  more  of  the 
"  temporary  emotion  "  which  lasted  Bishop  Janes  and 
Matthew  Simpson  for  a  half  century,  keeping  them 
on  fire  for  God  until  their  holy  enthusiasm  consumed 
their  bodies. 

So  all  the  evangelical  denominations  are  misrepre- 
sented. And  then  these  enemies  of  evangelism  go 
on  and  hold  up  the  great  doctrines  of  the  Christian 
Churches  as  absurd,  dry,  and  inexplicable  technical- 
ities. "  There  is  your  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,"  they 
say.  "  Absurd  beyond  all  bounds.  The  idea  that 
there  is  a  God  in  three  persons !  Impossible.  If  it 
is  one  God  He  can't  be  three,  and  if  there  are  three, 
they  can't  be  one."  At  the  same  time  all  of  us — they 
with  us — acknowledge  trinities  all  around  us.  Trin- 
ity in  our  own  make-up — body,  mind,  soul.  Body 
with  which  we  move,  mind  with  which  we  think, 
soul  with  which  we  love.  Three,  yet  one  man. 
Trinity  in  the  air — light,  heat,  moisture — yet  one 
atmosphere.  Trinity  in  the  court  room  —  three 
judges  on  the  bench,  but  one  court.  Trinities  all 
around  about  us,  in  earthly  government  and  in  na- 
ture. Of  course,  all  the  illustrations  are  defective 
for  the  reason  that  the  natural  cannot  fully  illustrate 
the  spiritual.  But  suppose  an  ignorant  man  should 


282  EVANGELISM   VINDICATED. 

come  up  to  a  chemist  and  say  :  "  I  deny  what  you 
say  about  the  water  and  about  the  air  ;  they  are  not 
made  of  different  parts.  The  air  is  one  ;  I  breathe  it 
every  day.  The  water  is  one  ;  I  drink  it  every  day. 
You  can't  deceive  me  about  the  elements  that  go  to 
make  up  the  air  and  the  water."  The  chemist  would 
say :  "  You  come  up  into  my  laboratory  and  I  will 
demonstrate  this  whole  thing  to  you."  The  ignorant 
man  goes  into  the  chemist's  laboratory,  and  sees  for 
himself.  He  learns  that  the  water  is  one  and  the  air 
is  one,  but  they  are  made  up  of  different  parts.  So 
here  is  a  man  who  says:  "I  can't  understand  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity."  God  says:  "  You  come  up 
here  into  the  laboratory  after  your  death,  and  you 
will  see — you  will  see  it  explained,  you  will  see  it 
demonstrated."  The  ignorant  man  cannot  under- 
stand the  chemistry  of  the  water  and  the  air  until  he 
goes  into  the  laboratory,  and  we  will  never  under- 
stand the  Trinity  until  we  go  into  heaven.  The 
ignorance  of  the  man  who  cannot  understand  the 
chemistry  of  the  air  and  water  does  not  change  the 
fact  in  regard  to  the  composition  of  air  and  water. 
Because  we  cannot  understand  the  Trinity,  does  that 
change  the  fact  ? 

"And  there  is  your  absurd  doctrine  about  justifica- 
tion by  faith,"  say  these  antagonists  who  have  chewed 
up  the  little  book  of  evangelism,  and  have  the  con- 
sequent embittered  stomach — "justification  by  faith  ; 
you  can't  explain  it."  I  can  explain  it.  It  is  simply 
this:  When  a  man  takes  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  his 
Saviour  from  sin,  God  lets  the  offender  off.  Just  as 
you  have  a  difference  with  some  one,  he  has  injured 
you,  he  apologizes  or  he  makes  reparation,  you  say, 
"  Now,  that's  all  right,  that's  all  right."  Justification 


EVANGELISM   VINDICATED.  283 

by  faith  is  this :  A  man  takes  Jesus  Christ  as  his 
Saviour,  and  God  says  to  the  man,  "  Now,  it  was  all 
wrong  before,  but  it  is  all  right  now  ;  it  is  all  right." 
That  was  what  made  Martin  Luther  what  he  was. 
Justification  by  faith, — it  is  going  to  conquer  all 
nations. 

"  There  is  your  absurd  doctrine  about  regenera- 
tion," these  antagonists  of  evangelism  say.  What  is 
regeneration?  Why,  regeneration  is  reconstruction. 
Anybody  can  understand  that.  Have  you  not  seen 
people  who  are  all  made  over  again  by  some  wonder- 
ful influence?  In  other  words,  they  are  just  as  differ- 
ent now  from  what  they  used  to  be  as  possible.  The 
old  Constellation,  man-of-war,  lay  down  here  at  the 
Brooklyn  Navy  Yard.  Famine  came  to  Ireland. 
The  old  Constellation  was  fitted  up,  and  though  it 
had  been  carrying  gunpowder  and  bullets  it  took 
bread  to  Ireland.  You  remember  the  enthusiasm  as 
the  old  Constellation  went  out  of  our  harbor,  and 
with  what  joy  it  was  greeted  by  the  famishing  nation 
on  the  other  side  the  sea.  That  is  regeneration.  A 
man  loaded  up  with  sin  and  death  loaded  up  with 
life.  Refitted.  Your  observation  has  been  very 
small  indeed  if  you  have  not  seen  changes  in  charac- 
ters as  radical  as  that. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

SPLENDORS  OF  ORTHODOXY. 

The  Bible  is  not  only  divinely  inspired,  but  it  is 
divinely  protected  in  its  present  shape.  You  could 
as  easily,  without  detection,  take  from  the  writings  of 
Shakspeare  Hamlet,  and  institute  in  place  thereof 
Alexander  Smith's  drama,  as  at  any  time  during  the 
last  fifteen  hundred  years  a  man  could  have  made  any 
important  change  in  the  Bible  without  immediate  de- 
tection. If  there  had  been  an  element  of  weakness 
or  of  deception,  or  of  disintegration,  the  Book  would 
long  ago  have  fallen  to  pieces.  If  there  had  been 
one  loose  brick  or  cracked  casement  in  this  castellated 
truth,  surely  the  bombardment  of  eight  centuries 
would  have  discovered  and  broken  through  that  im- 
perfection. The  fact  that  the  Bible  stands  intact, 
notwithstanding  all  the  furious  assaults  on  all  sides 
upon  it,  is  proof  to  me  that  it  is  a  miracle,  and  every 
miracle  is  of  God. 

"  But,"  say  some,  "  do  you  really  think  the  Scrip- 
tures are  inspired  thought  ?  "  Yes,  either  as  history 
or  as  guidance.  Gibbon  and  Josephus  and  Prescott 
record  in  their  histories  a  great  many  things  they  did 
not  approve  of.  When  George  Bancroft  put  upon 
his  brilliant  historical  page  the  account  of  an  Indian 
massacre,  does  he  approve  of  that  massacre?  There 
are  scores  of  things  in  the  Bible  which  neither  God 
nor  inspired  men  sanctioned.  Either  as  history  or 

284 


SPLENDORS   OF  ORTHODOXY.  285 

as  guidance,  the  entire  Bible  was  inspired  of  God. 

"  But,"  says  some  one,  "  don't  you  think  that  the 
copyists  might  have  made  mistakes  in  transferring 
the  divine  words  from  one  manuscript  to  another?" 
Yes,  no  doubt  there  were  such  mistakes  ;  but  they  no 
more  affect  the  meaning  of  the  Scriptures  than  the 
misspelling  of  a  word  or  the  ungrammatical  structure 
of  a  sentence  in  a  last  will  and  testament  affect  the 
validity  or  the  meaning  of  that  will.  All  the  mis- 
takes made  by  the  copyists  in  the  Scriptures  do  not 
amount  to  any  more  importance  than  the  difference 
between  your  spelling  in  a  document  the  word  forty, 
forty  or  fourty.  This  book  is  the  last  will  and  testa- 
ment of  God  to  our  lost  world,  and  it  bequeaths 
everything  in  the  right  way,  although  human  hands 
may  have  damaged  the  grammar  or  made  unjustifia- 
ble interpolation. 

These  men  who  pride  themselves  in  our  day  on 
being  advanced  thinkers  in  Biblical  interpretation  will 
all  of  them  end  in  atheism,  if  they  live  long  enough, 
and  I  declare  here  to-day  they  are  doing  more  in  the 
different  denominations  of  Christians,  and  throughout 
the  world,  for  damaging  Christianity  and  hindering 
the  cause  of  the  world's  betterment,  than  five  thou- 
sand Robert  Ingersolls  could  do.  That  man  who 
stands  inside  a  castle  is  far  more  dangerous  if  he  be 
an  enemy  than  five  thousand  enemies  outside  the 
castle.  Robert  G.  Ingersoll  assails  the  castle  from 
the  outside.  These  men  who  pretend  to  be  advanced 
thinkers  in  all  the  denominations  are  fighting  the 
truth  from  the  inside,  and  trying  to  shove  back  the 
bolts  and  swing  open  the  gates. 

Now,  I  am  in  favor  of  the  greatest  freedom  of 
religious  thought  and  discussion.  I  would  have  as 


286  SPLENDORS   OF   ORTHODOXY. 

much  liberty  for  heterodoxy  as  for  orthodoxy.  If  1 
should  change  my  theories  of  religion  I  should 
preach  them  out  and  out,  but  not  in  this  building, 
for  this  was  erected  by  people  who  believe  in  an 
entire  Bible,  and  it  would  be  dishonest  for  me  to 
promulgate  sentiments  different  from  those  for  which 
this  building  was  put  up.  When  we  enter  an)* 
denomination  as  ministers  of  religion  we  take  a 
solemn  vow  that  we  will  preach  the  sentiments  of 
that  denomination.  If  we  change  our  theories,  as 
we  have  a  right  to  change  them,  then  there  is  a  world 
several  thousand  miles  in  circumference,  and  there 
are  hundreds  of  halls  and  hundreds  of  academies  of 
music  where  we  can  ventilate  our  sentiments. 

I  remember  that  in  these  cities,  in  time  of  political 
agitation,  there  are  the  Republican  headquarters  and 
the  Democratic  headquarters.  Suppose  I  should  go 
into  one  of  these  headquarters  pretending  to  be  in 
sympathy  with  their  work,  at  the  same  time  elec- 
tioneering for  the  opposite  party.  I  would  soon  find 
that  the  centrifugal  force  was  greater  than  the  cen- 
tripetal. Now,  if  a  man  enters  a  denomination  of 
Christians,  taking  a  solemn  oath,  as  we  all  do,  that 
we  will  promulgate  the  theories  of  that  denomi- 
nation, and  then  the  man  shall  proclaim  some  other 
theory,  he  has  broken  his  oath,  and  he  is  an  out-and- 
out  perjurer.  Nevertheless,  I  declare  for  largest 
liberty  in  religious  discussion.  I  would  no  more 
have  the  present  attempt  to  rear  a  monument  to 
Thomas  Paine  in  New  York  interfered  with  than  I 
would  have  interfered  with  the  lifting  of  the  splendid 
monument  to  Washington  in  Wall  Street.  Largest 
liberty  for  the  body,  largest  liberty  for  the  mind, 
largest  liberty  for  the  soul. 


SPLENDORS  OF  ORTHODOXY.  287 

Now,  I  want  to  show  you,  as  a  matter  of  advocacy 
for  what  I  believe  to  be  the  right,  the  splendors  of 
orthodoxy.  Many  have  supposed  that  its  disciples 
are  people  of  flat  skulls,  and  no  reading,  and  behind 
the  age,  and  the  victims  of  gullibility.  I  shall  show 
you  that  the  word  orthodoxy  stands  for  the  greatest 
splendors  outside  of  heaven.  Behold  the  splendors  of 
its  achievements.  All  the  missionaries  of  the  Gos- 
pel, the  world  round,  are  men  who  believe  in  an 
entire  Bible.  Call  the  roll  of  all  the  missionaries 
who  are  to-day  enduring  sacrifices  in  the  ends  of  the 
earth  for  the  cause  of  religion  and  the  world's  better- 
ment, and  they  all  believe  in  an  entire  Bible.  Just 
as  soon  as  a  missionary  begins  to  doubt  whether 
there  ever  was  a  Garden  of  Eden,  or  whether  there 
is  any  such  thing  as  future  punishment,  he  comes 
right  home  from  Beyrout  or  Madras,  and  goes  into 
the  insurance  business !  All  the  missionary  societies 
of  this  day  are  officered  by  orthodox  men,  and  are 
supported  by  orthodox  churches. 

Orthodoxy,  beginning  with  the  Sandwich  Islands, 
has  captured  vast  regions  of  barbarism  for  civiliza- 
tion, while  heterodoxy  has  to  capture  the  first  square 
inch.  Blatant  for  many  years  in  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States,  and  strutting  about  with  a  pea- 
cockian  braggadocio,  it  has  yet  to  capture  the  first 
continent,  the  first  State,  the  first  township,  the  first 
ward,  the  first  space  of  ground  as  big  as  you  could 
cover  with  the  small  end  of  a  sharp  pin.  Ninety- 
nine  out  of  every  hundred  of  the  Protestant  churches 
of  America  were  built  by  people  who  believed  in  an 
entire  Bible.  The  pulpit  now  may  preach  some 
other  Gospel,  but  it  is  a  heterodox  gun  on  an  ortho- 
dox carriage.  The  foundations  of  all  the  churches 


288  SPLENDORS   OF  ORTHODOXY. 

that  are  of  very  great  use  in  this  world  to-day,  were 
laid  by  men  who  believed  the  Bible  from  lid  to  lid, 
and  if  I  can  not  take  it  in  that  way,  I  will  not  take  it 
at  all. 

No  church  of  very  great  influence  to-day  but  was 
built  by  those  who  believe  in  an  entire  Bible.  Nei- 
ther will  a  church  last  long  built  on  a  part  of  the 
Bible.  You  have  noticed,  I  suppose,  that  as  soon  as 
a  man  begins  to  give  up  the  Bible,  he  is  apt  to  preach 
in  some  hall,  and  he  has  an  audience  while  he  lives, 
and  when  he  dies,  the  church  dies.  If  I  thought  that 
this  church  was  built  on  a  quarter  of  a  Bible,  or  a 
half  of  a  Bible,  or  three-quarters  of  a  Bible,  or  ninety- 
nine  one-hundredths  of  a  Bible,  I  would  expect  it  to 
die  when  I  die ;  but  when  I  know  it  is  built  on  the 
entire  Word  of  God,  I  know  it  will  last  two  hundred 
years  after  you  and  I  sleep  the  last  sleep.  Oh,  the 
splendors  of  an  orthodoxy  which,  with  ten  thousand 
hands  and  ten  thousand  pulpits  and  ten  thousand 
Christian  churches,  is  trying  to  save  the  world ! 

Behold  the  splendors  of  character  built  by  ortho- 
doxy. Who  had  the  greatest  human  intellect  the 
world  ever  knew  ?  Paul.  In  physical  stature  insig- 
nificant;  in  mind,  head  and  shoulders  above  all  the 
giants  of  the  age.  Orthodox  from  scalp  to  heel. 
Who  was  the  greatest  poet  the  ages  ever  saw, 
acknowledged  to  be  so  both  by  infidels  and  Chris- 
tians? John  Milton,  seeing  more  without  eyes  than 
anybody  else  ever  saw  with  eyes.  Orthodox  from 
scalp  to  heel.  Who  was  the  greatest  reformer  the 
world  has  ever  seen  ?  so  acknowledged  by  infidels  as 
well  as  by  Christians.  Martin  Luther.  Orthodox 
from  scalp  to  heel. 

Then  look  at  the  certitudes.    O  man,  believing  in 


SPLENDORS   OF   ORTHODOXY.  289 

an  entire  Bible,  where  did  you  come  from  ?  Answer: 
"  I  descended  from  a  perfect  parentage  in  Paradise, 
and  Jehovah  breathed  into  my  nostrils  the  breath  of 
life.  I  am  a  son  of  God."  O  man,  believing  in  a 
half-and-half  Bible — believing  in  a  Bible  in  spots, 
where  did  you  come  from  ?  Answer :  "  It  is  all  un- 
certain ;  in  my  ancestral  line  away  back  there  was  an 
orang-outang  and  a  tadpole  and  a  polywog,  and  it 
took  millions  of  years  to  get  me  evoluted."  O  man, 
believing  in  a  Bible  in  spots,  where  are  you  going  to 
when  you  quit  this  world  ?  Answer  :  "  Going  into 
a  great  to  be,  so  on  into  the  great  somewhere,  and 
then  I  shall  pass  through  on  to  the  great  anywhere, 
and  I  shall  probably  arrive  in  the  nowhere."  That  is 
where  I  thought  you  would  fetch  up.  O  man,  believ- 
ing in  an  entire  Bible,  and  believing  with  all  your 
heart,  where  are  you  going  to  when  you  leave  this 
world?  Answer:  "I  am  going  to  my  Father's 
house ;  I  am  going  into  the  companionship  of  my 
loved  ones  who  have  gone  before  ;  I  am  going  to  leave 
all  my  sins,  and  I  am  going  to  be  with  God  and  like 
God  forever  and  forever."  Oh,  the  glorious  certi- 
tudes, certainties  of  orthodoxy  ! 

Behold  the  splendors  of  orthodoxy  in  its  announce- 
ment of  two  destinies. 

Palace  and  penitentiary.  Palace  with  gates  on  all 
sides  through  which  all  may  enter  and  live  on  celes- 
tial luxuries  world  without  end,  and  all  for  the  knock- 
ing and  the  asking.  A  palace  grander  than  if  all  the 
Alhambras  and  the  Versailles  and  the  Windsor  castles 
and  the  winter  gardens  and  the  imperial  abodes  of  all 
the  earth  were  heaved  up  into  one  architectural  glory. 
At  the  other  end  of  the  universe  a  penitentiary  where 
men  who  want  their  sins  can  have  them.  Would  it 

19 


290  SPLENDORS   OF   ORTHODOXY. 

be  fair  that  you  and  I  should  have  our  choice  of 
Christ  and  the  palace,  and  other  men  be  denied  their 
choice  of  sin  and  eternal  degradation?  Palace  and 
penitentiary.  The  first  of  no  use  unless  you  have  the 
last.  Brooklyn  and  New  York  would  be  better  places 
to  live  in  with  Raymond  Street  Jail  and  the  Tombs 
and  Sing  Sing,  and  all  the  small-pox  hospitals  emptied 
on  us  than  heaven  would  be  if  there  were  no  hell. 
Palace  and  penitentiary.  If  I  see  a  man  with  a  full 
bowl  of  sin,  and  he  thirsts  for  it,  and  his  whole  nature 
craves  it,  and  he  takes  hold  with  both  hands  and 
presses  that  bowl  to  his  lips,  and  then  presses  it  hard 
between  his  teeth,  and  the  draught  begins  to  pour  its 
sweetness  down  his  throat,  shall  we  snatch  away  the 
bowl  and  jerk  the  man  up  to  the  gate  of  heaven,  and 
push  him  in  if  he  does  not  want  to  go  and  sit  down 
and  sing  psalms  forever?  No.  God  has  made  you 
and  me  so  completely  free  that  we  need  not  go  to 
heaven  unless  we  prefer  it.  Not  more  free  to  soar 
than  free  to  sink. 

Young  men,  old  men,  middle  aged  men,  take  sides 
in  this  contest  between  orthodoxy  and  heterodoxy. 
"  Ask  for  the  old  paths,  walk  therein,  and  ye  shall 
find  rest  for  your  souls."  But  you  follow  this  cru- 
sade against  any  part  of  the  Bible — first  of  all  you 
will  give  up  Genesis,  which  is  as  true  as  Matthew; 
then  you  will  give  up  all  the  historical  parts  of  the 
Bible ;  then  after  a  while  you  will  give  up  the  mira- 
cles ;  then  you  will  find  it  convenient  to  give  up  the 
Ten  Commandments:  and  then  after  a  while  you  will 
wake  up  in  a  fountainless,  rockless,  treeless  desert 
swept  of  everlasting  sirocco.  If  you  are  laughed  at 
you  can  afford  to  be  laughed  at  for  standing  by  the 
Bible,  just  as  God  has  given  it  to  you  and  miracu- 
lously preserved  it. 


SPLENDORS    OF    ORTHODOXY.  2QI 

Do  not  jump  overboard  from  the  staunch  old 
Great  Eastern  of  old-fashioned  orthodoxy  until  there 
is  something  ready  to  take  you  up  stronger  than  the 
fantastic  yawl  which  has  painted  on  the  side,  "  Ad- 
vanced Thought,"  and  which  leaks  at  the  prow  and 
leaks  at  the  stern,  and  has  a  steel  pen  for  one  oar  and 
a  glib  tongue  for  the  other  oar,  and  now  tips  over 
this  way  and  then  tips  over  that  way,  until  you  do 
not  know  whether  the  passengers  will  land  in  the 
breakers  of  despair  or  on  the  sinking  sand  of  infidelity 
and  atheism. 

I  am  in  full  sympathy  with  the  advancements  of 
our  time,  but  this  world  will  never  advance  a  single 
inch  beyond  this  old  Bible.  God  was  just  as  capable 
of  dictating  the  truth  to  the  prophets  and  apostles 
as  he  is  cap'able  of  dictating  the  truth  to  these  mod- 
ern apostles  and  prophets.  God  has  not  learned 
anything  in  a  thousand  years.  He  knew  just  as 
much  when  He  gave  the  first  dictation  as  He  does 
now,  giving  the  last  dictation,  if  He  is  giving  any 
dictation  at  all.  So  I  will  stick  to  the  old  paths.  I 
prefer  the  thick,  warm  robe  of  the  old  religion — old 
as  God — the  robe  which  has  kept  so  many  warm  amid 
the  cold  pilgrimage  of  this  life,  and  amid  the  chills 
of  death.  The  old  robe  rather  than  the  thin,  uncer- 
tain gauze  offered  us  by  these  wise-acres  who  believe 
the  Bible  in  spots. 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 

MENDING   THE   BIBLE. 

"  If  any  man  shall  take  away  from  the  words  of  the  book  of  this 
prophecv,  God  shall  take  away  his  part  out  of  the  book  of  life,  and 
out  of  the  holy  city." — REV.  22:  19. 

You  see  it  is  a  very  risky  business,  this  changing  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures. 

A  pulpit  in  New  York  has  recently  set  forth  the 
idea  that  the  Scriptures  ought  to  be  expurgated,  that 
portions  of  them  are  unfit  to  be  read,  and  the  inspi- 
ration of  much  of  the  Bible  has  been  denied.  Among 
other  striking  statements  are  these  : 

The  Book  of  Genesis  is  a  tradition  of  creation,  a 
successive  layer  of  traditions  thought  out  centuries 
before.  Moses'  mistakes  about  creation  were  the 
mistakes  of  his  age.  Thai  there  are  many  systems  of 
theology  in  the  New  Testament.  That  Paul  had  all 
the  notions  of  the  rabbinical  schools  of  his  time. 
That  Job  winds  up  his  epilogue  in  genuine  fairy-tale 
style.  That  Revelation  is  a  long  array  of  misshapen 
progeny  in  the  apocalyptic  writings,  tracing  them- 
selves back  to  Daniel.  That  Revelation  comes  to  a 
madman,  or  leaves  him  mad.  That  what  he  calls  the 
abominable  lewdness  of  some  things  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament is  not  fit  to  be  read.  That  it  is  an  abominable 
misuse  of  the  Bible  to  suppose  the  prophecies  really 
foretell  future  events.  That  the  book  of  Daniel  is 
not  in  the  right  place.  That  Solomon's  Songs  are  not 

292 


MENDING   THE   BIBLE.  293 

in  the  right  place,  and  he  seems  to  applaud  the  idea 
of  some  one  who  said  that  the  book  of  Solomon's 
Songs  ought  not  to  be  in  any  one's  hands  under  thirty 
years  of  age.  He  intimates  that  he  does  not  believe 
that  Samson  slew  a  thousand  men  with  the  jawbone 
of  an  ass.  That  the  whole  Bible  has  been  improperly 
chopped  up  into  chapters  and  verses. 

He  does  not  believe  the  beginning  of  the  Bible, 
and  he  does  not  believe  the  close  of  it,  nor  anything 
between  as  fully  inspired  of  God,  and  he  thinks  the 
Book  ought  to  be  expurgated,  and  there  are  those 
who  re-echo  the  same  sentiment. 

Now,  I  believe  in  the  largest  liberty  of  discussion, 
aud  there  are  halls,  and  opera-houses,  and  academies 
of  music,  where  the  Bible  and  Christianity  may  be 
assaulted  without  interruption  ;  but  when  a  minister 
of  the  Gospel  surrenders  the  faith  of  any  denomi- 
nation, his  first  plain,  honest  duty,  is  to  get  out  of  it. 
What  would  you  think  of  the  clerk  in  a  dry-goods 
store,  or  a  factory,  or  a  banking-house,  who  should  go 
to  criticising  the  books  of  the  firm,  and  denouncing 
the  behavior  of  the  firm,  still  taking  the  salarv  of  that 
firm  and  the  support  of  that  firm,  and  doing  all  his 
denunciation  of  the  books  of  the  firm  under  its  cover? 
Certainly,  a  minister  of  the  Gospel  ought  to  be  as 
honest  with  his  denomination,  as  a  dry-goods  clerk  is 
honest  with  his  employers. 

The  heinousness  of  finding  fault  with  the  Bible  at 
this  time  by  a  Christian  minister  is  most  evident.  In 
our  day  the  Bible  is  assailed  by  scurrility,  by  mis- 
representation, by  infidel  scientist,  bv  all  the  vice  of 
earth  and  all  the  venom  of  perdition,  and  at  this  par- 
ticular time  ministers  of  religion  fall  into  line  of  crit- 
icism of  the  Word  of  God.  Why,  it  makes  me  think 


294  MENDING   THE    BIBLE. 

of  a  ship  in  a  September  equinox,  the  waves  dashing 
to  the  top  of  the  smoke-stack,  and  the  hatches 
fastened  down,  and  many  prophesying  the  founder- 
ing of  the  steamer,  and  at  that  time  some  of  the 
crew  with  axes  and  saws  go  down  into  the  hold  of 
the  ship,  and  try  to  saw  off  some  of  the  planks  and 
pry  out  some  of  the  timbers  because  the  timber  did 
not  come  from  the  right  forest !  It  does  not  seem  to 
me  commendable  business  for  the  crew  to  be  helping 
the  winds  and  storms  outside  with  their  axes  and 
saws  inside. 

Now,  this  old  Gospel  ship,  what  with  the  roaring 
of  earth  and  hell  around  the  stem  and  stern,  and 
mutiny  on  deck,  is  having  a  very  rough  voyage,  but 
I  have  noticed  that  not  one  of  the  timbers  has  started, 
and  the  Captain  says  He  will  see  it  through.  And  I 
have  noticed  that  keelson  and  counter-timber  knee 
are  built  out  of  Lebanon  cedar,  and  she  is  going  to 
weather  the  gale,  but  no  credit  to  those  who  make 
mutiny  on  deck. 

When  I  see  ministers  of  religion  in  this  particular 
day  finding  fault  with  the  Scriptures,  it  makes  me 
think  of  a  fortress  terrifically  bombarded,  and  the 
men  on  the  ramparts,  instead  of  swabbing  out  and 
loading  the  guns  and  helping  fetch  up  the  ammu- 
nition from  the  magazine,  are  trying  with  crowbars 
to  pry  out  from  the  wall  certain  blocks  of  stone,  be- 
cause they  did  not  come  from  the  right  quarry.  Oh, 
men  on  the  ramparts,  better  fight  back  and  fight 
down  the  common  enemy,  instead  of  trying  to  make 
breeches  in  the  wall. 

While  I  oppose  this  expurgation  of  the  Scriptures, 
I  shall  give  you  my  reasons  for  such  opposition. 
"What. !  "  say  some  of  the  theological  evolutionists, 


MENDING   THE   BIBLE.  295 

whose  brains  have  been  addled  by  too  long  brooding 
over  them  by  Darwin  and  Spencer,  "  you  don't  now 
really  believe  all  the  story  of  the  Garden  of  Eden, 
do  you?"  Yes,  as  much  as  I  believe  all  the  roses 
that  were  in  my  garden  last  summer.  "  But,"  sav 
they,  "  you  don't  really  believe  that  the  sun  and  moon 
stood  still  ?  "  Yes,  and  if  I  had  strength  enough  to 
create  a  sun  and  moon  I  could  make  them  stand  still, 
or  cause  the  refraction  of  the  sun's  rays  so  it  would 
appear  to  stand  still.  "  But,"  they  say,  "  you  don't 
really  believe  that  the  whale  swallowed  Jonah  ? " 
Yes,  and  if  I  were  strong  enough  to  make  a  whale  I 
could  have  made  very  easy  ingress  for  the  refractory 
prophet,  leaving  to  Evolution  to  eject  him,  if  he 
were  an  unworthy  tenant.  "  But,"  say  they,  "  you 
don't  really  believe  that  the  water  was  turned  into 
wine?"  Yes,  just  as  easily  as  water  now  is  often 
turned  into  wine  with  an  admixture  of  strychnine  and 
logwood  !  "  But,"  say  they,  "  you  don't  really  believe 
that  Samson  slew  a  thousand  with  the  jaw-bone  of  an 
ass?"  Yes,  as  I  think  that  the  man  who  in  this  day 
assaults  the  Bible  is  wielding  the  same  weapon ! 

There  is  nothing  in  the  Bible  that  staggers  me. 
There  are  many  things  I  do  not  understand,  I  do 
not  pretend  to  understand,  never  shall  in  this  world 
understand.  But  that  would  be  a  very  poor  God 
who  could  be  fully  understood  by  the  human.  That 
would  be  a  very  small  Infinite  that  can  be  measured 
by  the  finite.  You  must  not  expect  to  weigh  the 
thunderbolts  of  Omnipotence  in  an  apothecary's  bal- 
ances. Starting  with  the  idea  that  God  can  do  any- 
thing, and  that  He  was  present  at  the  beginning,  and 
that  He  is  present  now,  there  is  nothing  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures  to  arouse  skepticism  in  my  heart.  Here  I 


296  MENDING   THE   BIBLE. 

stand,  a  fossil  of  the  ages,  dug  up  from  the  tertiary 
formation,  fallen  off  the  shelf  of  an  antiquarian,  a 
man  in  the  latter  part  of  the  glorious  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, believing  in  a  whole  Bible,  from  lid  to  lid  ! 

I  am  opposed  to  the  expurgation  of  the  Scriptures 
in  the  first  place,  because  the  Bible  in  its  present 
shape  has  been  so  miraculously  preserved.  Fifteen 
hundred  years  after  Herodotus  wrote  his  history, 
there  was  only  one  manuscript  copy  of  it.  Twelve 
hundred  years  after  Plato  wrote  his  book,  there  was 
only  one  manuscript  copy  of  it.  God  was  so  careful 
to  have  us  have  the  Bible  in  just  the  right  shape,  that 
we  have  fifty  manuscript  copies  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, a  thousand  years  old,  and  many  of  them  fifteen 
hundred  years  old.  This  Book,  handed  down  from 
the  time  of  Christ,  or  just  after  the  time  of  Christ, 
by  the  hand  of  such. men  as  Origen,  in  the  second 
century,  and  Tertullian,  in  the  third  century — men 
of  different  ages  who  died  for  their  principles.  The 
three  best  copies  of  the  New  Testament  in  manu- 
script in  the  possession  of  three  great  churches — the 
Protestant  Church  of  England,  the  Greek  Church  of 
St.  Petersburg,  and  the  Romish  Church  of  Italy. 

It  is  a  plain  matter  of  history  that  Tischendorf 
went  to  a  convent  in  the  peninsula  of  Sinai,  and  was 
by  ropes  lifted  over  the  wall  into  the  convent,  that 
being  the  only  mode  of  admission,  and  that  he  saw 
there  in  the  waste  basket  for  kindling  for  the  fires,  a 
manuscript  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  That  night  he 
copied  many  of  the  passages  of  that  Bible,  but  it  was 
not  until  fifteen  years  had  passed  of  earnest  entreaty 
and  prayer,  and  coaxing,  and  purchase  on  his  part 
that  that  copy  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  was  put  into 
the  hands  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia — that  one  copy 
so  marvelously  protected. 


MENDING   THE   BIBLE.  297 

Do  you  not  know  that  the  catalogue  of  the  books 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  as  we  have  it,  is  the 
same  catalogue  that  has  been  coming  on  down 
through  the  ages  ?  Thirty-nine  books  of  the  Old 
Testament  thousands  of  years  ago.  Thirty-nine  now. 
Twenty-seven  books  of  the  New  Testament,  sixteen 
hundred  years  ago.  Twenty-seven  books  of  the  New 
Testament  now.  Marcion,  for  wickedness,  was 
turned  out  of  the  Church  in  the  second  century,  and 
in  his  assault  on  the  Bible  and  Christianity,  he  inci- 
dentally gives  a  catalogue  of  the  books  of  the  Bible— 
that  catalogue  corresponding  exactly  with  ours — 
testimony  given  by  the  enemy  of  the  Bible,  and  the 
enemy  of  Christianity.  The  catalogue  now,  just  like 
the  catalogue  then.  Assaulted  and  spit  on,  and  torn 
to  pieces  and  burned,  yet  adhering.  The  book  to-day, 
in  three  hundred  languages,  confronting  four-fifths 
of  the  human  race  in  their  own  tongue.  Three  hun- 
dred million  copies  of  it  in  existence.  Does  not  that 
look  as  if  this  Book  had  been  divinely  protected,  as 
if  God  had  guarded  it  all  through  the  centuries  ? 

Not  only  have  all  the  attempts  to  detract  from  the 
Book  failed,  but  all  the  attempts  to  add  to  it.  Many 
attempts  were  made  to  add  the  apochryphal  books 
to  the  Old  Testament.  The  Council  of  Trent,  the 
Synod  of  Jerusalem,  the  Bishops  of  Hippo,  all 
decided  that  the  apochryphal  books  must  be  added 
to  the  Old  Testament.  "  They  must  stay  in,"  said 
those  learned  men,  but  they  stayed  out.  There  is 
not  an  intelligent  Christian  man  that  to-day  will  put 
the  Book  of  Maccabeus  or  the  Book  of  Judith  beside 
the  Book  of  Isaiah  or  Romans.  Then  a  great  many 
said, "  We  must  have  books  added  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment," and  there  were  epistles  and  Gospels  and 


298  MK \DI.\G   THE   BIBLE. 

apocalypses  written  and  adcled  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment, but  the)''  have  all  fallen  out.  You  cannot  add 
anything.  You  cannot  subtract  anything.  Divinely 
protected  book  in  the  present  shape.  Let  no  man 
dare  to  lay  his  hands  on  it  with  the  intention  of 
detracting  from  the  Book,  or  casting  out  any  of  these 
holy  pages. 

I  am  also  opposed  to  this  proposed  expurgation 
of  the  Scriptures  for  the  fact  that  in  proportion  as 
people  became  self-sacrificing  and  good  and  holy 
and  consecrated,  they  like  the  book  as  it  is.  I  have 
yet  to  find  a  man  or  a  woman  distinguished  for  self- 
sacrifice,  for  consecration  to  God,  for  holiness  of  life, 
who  wants  the  Bible  changed.  Many  of  us  have 
inherited  family  Bibles.  Those  Bibles  were  in  use 
twenty,  forty,  fifty,  perhaps  a  hundred  years  in  the 
generations.  This  afternoon,  when  you  go  home, 
take  down  those  family  Bibles,  and  find  out  if  there 
are  any  chapters  which  have  been  erased  by  lead 
pencil  or  pen,  and  if  in  any  margins  you  can  find  the 
words:  "  This  chapter  not  fit  to  read."  There  has 
been  plenty  of  opportunity  during  the  last  half  cen- 
tury privately  to  expurgate  the  Bible.  Do  you 
know  any  case  of  such  expurgation?  Did  not  your 
grandfather  give  it  to  your  father,  and  did  not  your 
father  give  it  to  you? 

Expurgate  the  Bible!  You  might  as  well  go  to 
the  old  picture  galleries  in  Dresden  and  in  Venice 
and  in  Rome  and  expurgate  the  old  paintings.  Per- 
haps you  could  find  a  foot  of  Michael  Angelo's  "  Last 
Judgment"  that  might  be  improved.  Perhaps  you 
could  throw  more  expression  into  Raphael's  "  Ma- 
donna." Perhaps  you  could  put  more  pathos  into 
Rubens'  "  Descent  from  the  Cross."  Perhaps  you 


MENDING   THE   BIBLE.  299 

could  change  the  crests  of  the  waves  in  Turner's 
"  Slave  Ship."  Perhaps  you  might  go  into  the  old 
galleries  of  sculpture  and  change  the  forms  and  the 
postures  of  the  statues  of  Phidias  and  Praxiteles. 
Such  an  iconoclast  would  very  soon  find  himself  in 
the  penitentiary.  But  it  is  worse  vandalism  when  a 
man  proposes  to  re-fashion  these  masterpieces  of  in- 
spiration and  to  remodel  the  moral  giants  of  this  gal- 
lery of  God. 

Now,  let  us  divide  off.  Let  those  people  who  do 
not  believe  the  Bible  and  who  are  critical  of  this  and 
that  part  of  it,  go  clear  over  to  the  other  side.  Let 
them  stand  behind  the  devil's  guns.  There  can  be  no 
compromise  between  infidelity  and  Christianity. 
Give  us  the  out  and  out  opposition  of  infidelity 
rather  than  the  work  of  these  hybrid  theologians, 
these  mongrel  ecclesiastics,  these  half  and  half  evo- 
luted  pulpiteers  who  believe  the  Bible  and  do  not 
believe  it,  who  accept  the  miracles  and  do  not  accept 
them,  who  believe  in  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures 
and  do  not  believe  in  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures 
— trimming  their  belief  on  one  side  to  suit  the  skep- 
ticism of  the  world,  trimming  their  belief  on  the  other 
side  to  suit  the  pride  of  their  own  heart,  and  feeling 
that  in  order  to  demonstate  their  courage  they  must 
make  the  Bible  a  target,  and  shoot  at  God. 

There  is  one  thing  that  encourages  me  very  much, 
and  that  is,  that  the  Lord  made  out  to  manage  the 
universe  before  they  were  born,  and  will  probably  be 
able  to  make  out  to  manage  the  universe  a  little  while 
after  they  are  dead.  While  I  demand  that  the  antag- 
onists of  the  Bible,  and  the  critics  of  the  Bible  go 
clear  over  where  they  belong,  on  the  devil's  side,  I  ask 
all  the  friends  of  this  good  Book  to  come  out  openly 


300  MENDING   THE    BIBI.K. 

and  above  board  in  behalf  of  it.  That  Book,  which 
was  the  best  inheritance  you  ever  received  from  your 
ancestry,  and  which  will  be  the  best  legacy  you  will 
leave  to  your  children  when  you  bid  them  good-bye 
as  you  cross  the  ferry  to  the  golden  city. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE   GLORIOUS    MARCH. 

"Fair  as  the  moon,  clear  as  the  sun,  and  terrible  as  an  army  with 
banners." — SOLOMON'S  SONG  6:   10. 

The  fragrance  of  spikenard,  the  flash  of  jewels,  the 
fruitfulness  of  orchards,  the  luxuriance  of  gardens, 
the  beauty  of  Heshbon  fish-pools,  the  dew  of  the 
night,  and  the  splendor  of  the  morning — all  contribute 
to  the  richness  of  Solomon's  style,  when  he  comes  to 
speak  of  the  glory  of  the  Church.  In  contrast  with 
his  eulogium  of  the  Church,  look  at  the  denunciatory 
things  that  are  said  in  our  day  in  regard  to  it.  If  one 
stockholder  become  a  cheat,  does  that  destroy  the 
whole  company  ?  If  one  soldier  be  a  coward,  does 
that  condemn  the  whole  army  ?  And  yet  there  are 
many  in  this  day  so  unphilosophic,  so  illogical,  so 
dishonest,  and  so  unfair  as  to  denounce  the  entire 
Church  of  God  because  there  are  here  and  there  bad 
men  belonging  to  it. 

There  are  those  who  say  that  the  Church  of  God 
is  not  up  to  the  spirit  of  the  day  in  which  we  live  ; 
but  I  have  to  tell  you  that,  notwithstanding  all  the 
swift  wheels,  and  the  flying  shuttles,  and  the  light- 
ning communications,  the  world  has  never  yet  been 
able  to  keep  up  with  the  Church.  As  high  as  God 
is  above  man,  so  high  is  the  Church  of  God — higher 
than  all  human  institutions.  From  her  lamp  the  best 
discoveries  of  the  world  have  been  lighted.  The 

301 


302  THE   GLORIOUS    MARCH. 

best  of  our  inventors  have  believed  in  the  Christian 
religion — the  Fultons,  the  Morses,  the  Whitneys,  the 
Perrvs,  and  the  Livingstones.  She  has  owned  the 
best  of  the  telescopes  and  Leyden  jars;  and  while 
infidelity  and  atheism  have  gone  blindfolded  among 
the  most  startling  discoveries  that  were  about  to  be 
developed,  the  earth,  and  the  air,  and  the  sea  have 
made  quick  and  magnificent  responses  to  Christian 
philosophers. 

The  world  will  not  be  up  to  the  Church  of  Christ 
until  the  day  when  all  merchandise  has  become  hon- 
est merchandise,  and  all  governments  have  become 
free  governments,  and  all  nations  evangelized  nations, 
and  the  last  deaf  ear  of  spiritual  death  shall  be  broken 
open  by  the  million-voiced  shout  of  nations  born  in  a 
day.  The  Church  that  Nebuchadnezzar  tried  to 
burn  in  the  furnace,  and  Darius  to  tear  to  pieces 
with  the  lions,  and  Lord  Claverhouse  to  cut  with  the 
sword,  has  gone  on,  wading  the  floods  and  enduring 
the  fire,  until  the  deepest  barbarism,  and  the  fiercest 
cruelties,  and  the  blackest  superstitions  have  been 
compelled  to  look  to  the  East,  crying,  "Who  is  she 
that  looketh  forth  as  the  morning,  fair  as  the  moon 
clear  as  the  sun,  and  terrible  as  an  army  with  ban, 
ners?"  God,  who  has  determined  that  everything 
shall  be  beautiful  in  its  season,  has  not  left  the  night 
without  charm.  The  moon  rules  the  night.  The 
stars  are  only  set  as  gems  in  her  tiara.  Sometimes 
before  the  sun  has  gone  down  the  moon  mounts  her 
throne,  but  it  is  after  nightfall  that  she  sways  her  un- 
disputed scepter  over  island  and  continent,  river  and 
sea.  Under  her  shining  the  plainest  maple  leaves  be- 
come shivering  silver,  the  lakes  from  shore  to  shore 
look  like  shining  mirrors,  and  the  ocean  under  her 


THE  ASCENSION  OF  CHRIST. 


THE   GLORIOUS   MARCH.  305 

glance  with  great  tides  comes  up  panting  upon  the 
beach,  mingling,  as  it  were,  foam  and  fire. 

Under  the  witchery  of  the  moon  the  awful  steeps 
lose  their  ruggedness,  and  the  "chasms  their  terror. 
The  poor  man  blesses  God  for  throwing  so  cheap  a 
light  through  the  broken  window  pane  of  his  cabin, 
and  to  the  sick  it  seems  like  a  light  from  the  other 
shore  that  bounds  this  great  deep  of  human  pain  and 
woe.  If  the  sun  be  like  a  song,  full  and  loud  and 
poured  forth  from  brazen  instruments  that  fill  heaven 
and  earth  with  harmony,  the  moon  is  plaintive  and 
sad,  standing  beneath  the  throne  of  God,  sending  up 
her  soft,  sweet  voice  of  praise,  while  the  stars  listen. 
And  the  sea !  No  mother  ever  more  lovingly  watched 
a  sick  cradle  than  this  pale  watcher  of  the  sky  bends 
over  the  weary,  heart-sick,  slumbering  earth,  singing 
to  it  silvery  music,  while  it  is  rocked  in  the  cradle  of 
the  spheres. 

"  Who  is  she,  fair  as  the  moon  ?  "  Our  answer  is 
the  Church.  Like  the  moon,  she  is  a  borrowed  light. 

She  gathers  up  the  glory  of  a  Saviour's  suffer- 
ings, a  Saviour's  death,  a  Saviour's  resurrection,  a 
Saviour's  ascension,  and  pours  that  light  on  palace 
and  dungeon,  on  squalid  heathenism  and  elaborate 
skepticism,  on  widow's  tears  and  martyr's  robe  of 
flame,  on  weeping  penitence  and  loud-mouthed  scorn. 

She  is  the  only  institution  to-day  that  gives  any 
light  to  our  world.  Into  her  portal  the  poor  come 
and  get  the  sympathy  of  a  once  pillowless  Christ. 
The  bereaved  come  and  see  the  bottle  in  which  God 
saves  all  our  tears,  and  the  captives  come,  and  on  the 
sharp  corners  of  her  altars  dash  off  their  chains,  and 
the  thirsty  come  and  put  their  cup  under  the  "  Rock 
of  Ages,"  which  pours  forth  from  its  smitten  side 


306  THE   GLORIOUS    MARCH. 

living  water,  sparkling  water,  crystalline  water,  from 
under  the  throne  ot  God  and  the  Lamb.  Blessed  the 
bell  that  calls  her  worshipers  to  prayer.  Blessed  the 
water  in  which  her  members  are  baptized.  Blessed 
the  wine  that  glows  in  her  sacramental  cup.  Blessed 
the  songs  on  which  her  devotions  travel  up  and  the 
angels  of  God  travel  down. 

As  the  moon  goes  through  the  midst  of  the  roaring 
storm-clouds  unflushed  and  unharmed, '  and  comes 
out  calm  and  beautiful  on  the  other  side,  so  the 
Church  of  God  has  gone  through  all  the  storms  of 
this  world's  persecution  and  come  out  uninjured,  no 
worse  for  the  fact  that  Robespierre  cursed  it,  and 
Voltaire  caricatured  it,  and  Tom  Paine  sneered  at  it, 
and  all  the  forces  of  darkness  have  bombarded  it. 
Not  like  some  baleful  comet  shooting  across  the  sky, 
scattering  terror  and  dismay  among  the  nations,  but 
above  the  long  howling  night  of  the  world's  wretch- 
edness the  Christian  Church  has  made  her  mild  way. 

After  a  season  of  storm  or  fog,  how  you  are  thrilled 
when  the  sun  comes  out  at  noonday  !  The  mists 
travel  up,  hill  above  hill,  mountain  above  mountain, 
until  they  are  sky  lost.  The  forests  are  full  of  chirp 
and  buzz  and  song  ;  honey-makers  in  the  log,  bird's 
beak  pounding  the  bark,  the  chatter  of  the  squirrel 
on  the  rail,  the  call  of  a  hawk  out  of  the  clear  sky, 
make  you  thankful  for  the  sunshine  which  makes  all 
the  world  so  busy  and  so  glad.  The  same  sun  which 
in  the  morning  kindled  conflagrations  among  the 
castles  of  cloud  stoops  down  to  paint  the  lily  white, 
and  the  buttercup  yellow,  and  the  forget-me-not  blue. 

Light  for  voyager  on  the  deep  ;  light  for  shepherds 
guarding  the  flocks  afield;  light  for  the  poor  who 
have  no  lamps  to  burn ;  light  for  the  downcast  and 


THE   GLORIOUS   MARCH.  3O/ 

the  weary;  light  for  aching  ey.es  and  burning  brain 
and  consuming  captive ;  light  for  the  smooth  brow 
of  childhood  and  the  dim  vision  of  the  octogenarian ; 
light  for  the  queen's  coronet  and  sewing-girl's  nee- 
dle. "  Let  there  be  light." 

"  Who  is  she  that  looketh  forth  clear  as  the  sun  ?  " 
Our  answer  is,  the  Church.  You  have  been  going 
along  a  road  before  daybreak,  and  on  one  side  you 
thought  you  saw  a  lion,  and  on  the  other  side  you 
thought  you  saw  a  goblin  of  the  darkness,  but  when 
the  sun  came  out,  you  found  these  were  harmless 
apparitions.  And  it  is  the  great  mission  of  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  to  come  forth  "  clear  as  the 
sun,"  to  illumine  all  earthly  darkness,  to  explain,  as 
far  as  possible,  all  mystery,  and  to  make  the  world 
radiant  in  its  brightness ;  and  that  which  you  thought 
was  an  aroused  lion  is  found  out  to  be  a  slumbering 
lamb ;  and  the  sepulchral  gates  of  your  dead  turn 
out  to  be  the  opening  gates  of  heaven ;  and  that 
which  you  supposed  was  a  flaming  sword  to  keep 
you  out  of  paradise  is  an  angel  of  light  to  beckon 
you  in. 

The  lamps  on  her  altars  will  cast  their  glow  on 
your  darkest  pathway,  and  cheer  you  until,  far 
beyond  the  need  of  lantern  or  lighthouse,  you  are 
safely  anchored  within  the  veil.  O  sun  of  the 
Church  !  shine  on  until  there  is  no  sorrow  to  soothe, 
no  tears  to  wipe  away,  no  shackles  to  break,  no  more 
souls  to  be  redeemed.  Ten  thousand  hands  of  sin 
have  attempted  to  extinguish  the  lamps  on  her  altars, 
but  they  are  quenchless  ;  and  to  silence  her  pulpits, 
but  the  thunder  would  leap,  and  the  lightning  would 
flame. 

The  Church  of  God  will  yet  come  to  full  meridian, 


308  THE   GLORIOUS    MARCH. 

and  in  that  day  all  the  mountains  of  the  world  will 
be  sacred  mountains  touched  with  the  glorv  of 
Calvary,  and  all  streams  will  flow  bv  the  mount  of 
God  like  cool  Siloam,  and  all  lakes  be  redolent  with 
Gospel  memories  like  Gennesaret,  and  all  islands  of 
the  sea  be  crowned  with  apocalyptic  vision  like  Pat- 
mos,  and  all  cities  be  sacred  as  Jerusalem,  and  all 
gardens  luxuriant  as  Paradise,  with  God  walking  in 
the  cool  of  the  day.  Then  the  chorals  of  grace  will 
drown  out  all  the  anthems  of  earth.  Then  the  throne 
of  Christ  will  overtop  all  earthly  authority.  Then 
the  crown  of  Jesus  will  outflame  all  other  coronets. 
Sin  destroyed.  Death  dead.  Hell  defeated.  The 
Church  triumphant.  All  the  darknesses  of  sin,  all  the 
darknesses  of  trouble,  all  the  darknesses  of  earthly 
mystery,  hieing  themselves  to  their  dens.  "  Clear 
as  the  sun  !  clear  as  the  sun." 

You  know  there  is  nothing  that  excites  a  sol- 
dier's enthusiasm  so  much  as  an  old  flag.  Many  a 
man  almost  dead,  catching  a  glimpse  of  the  national 
ensign,  has  sprung  to  his  feet,  and  started  again  into 
the  battle.  Now,  my  friends,  I  don't  want  you  to 
think  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  as  a  defeated  in- 
stitution, as  the  victim  of  infidel  sarcasm,  something 
to  be  kicked,  and  cuffed,  and  trampled  on  through  all 
the  ages  of  the  world.  It  is  "  an  army  with  banners." 
It  has  an  inscription  and  colors  such  as  never  stirred 
the  hearts  of  an  earthly  soldiery.  We  have  our  ban- 
ner of  recruit,  and  on  it  is  inscribed,  "  Who  is  on  the 
Lord's  side?"  Our  banner  of  defiance,  and  on  it  is 
inscribed,  "  The  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against 
us."  Our  banner  of  triumph,  and  on  it  is  inscribed, 
"  Victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ !  "  and  we 
mean  to  plant  that  banner  on  every  hilltop,  and  wave 
it  at  the  gate  of  heaven. 


THE   GLORIOUS   MARCH.  309 

With  Christ  to  lead  us.  we  need  not  fear.  I  will 
not  underrate  the  enemy.  They  are  a.  tremendous 
host.  They  come  on  with  acutest  strategy.  Their 
weapons  by  all  the  inhabitants  of  darkness  have  been 
forged  in  furnaces  of  everlasting  fire.  We  contend 
not  with  flesh  and  blood,  but,  with  principalities,  and 
powers,  and  spiritual  wickedness  in  high  places  ;  but, 
if  God  be  for  us,  who  can  be  against  us?  Come  on, 
ye  troops  of  the  Lord  !  Fall  into  line  !  Close  up  the 
ranks  !  On,  through  burning  sands  and  over  frozen 
mountain-tops,  until  the  whole  earth  surrenders  to 
God.  He  made  it ;  He  redeemed  it ;  He  shall  have  it. 
They  shall  not  be  trampled  with  hoofs,  they  shall  not 
be  cut  with  sabers,  they  shall  not  be  crushed  with 
wheels,  they  shall  not  be  cloven  with  battle-axes,  but 
the  marching,  and  the  onset,  and  the  victory,  will  be 
none  the  less  decisive  for  that. 

With  Christ  to  lead  us,  and  heaven  to  look  down 
upon  us,  and  angels  to  guard  us,  and  martyr  spirits 
to  bend  from  their  thrones,  and  the  voice  of  God  to 
bid  us  forward  into  the  combat,  our  enemies  shall  fly 
like  chaff  in  the  whirlwind,  and  all  the  towers  of 
heaven  ring  because  the  day  is  ours. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

SHAMS   IN    RELIGION. 

The  world  wants  a  religion  that  will  work  into  all 
the  circumstances  of  life.  We  do  not  want  a  new 
religion,  but  the  old  religion  applied  in  all  possible 
directions. 

Yonder  is  a  river  with  steep  and  rocky  banks,  and 
it  roars  like  a  young  Niagara  as  it  rolls  on  over  its 
rough  bed.  It  does  nothing  but  talk  about  itself  all 
the  way  from  its  source  in  the  mountain  to  the  place 
where  it  empties  into  the  sea.  The  banks  are  so 
steep  the  cattle  cannot  come  down  to  drink.  It  does 
not  run  one  fertilizing  rill  into  the  adjoining  field. 
It  has  not  one  grist  mill  or  factory  on  either  side.  It 
sulks  in  wet  weather,  with  chilling  fogs.  No  one 
cares  when  that  river  is  born  among  the  rocks,  and 
no  one  cares  when  it  dies  into  the  sea.  But  yonder 
is  another  river,  and  it  mosses  its  banks  with  the 
warm  tides,  and  it  rocks  with  floral  lullaby  the  water 
lilies  asleep  on  its  bosom.  It  invites  herds  of  cattle 
and  flocks  of  sheep  and  coveys  of  birds  to  come 
there  and  drink.  It  has  three  grist  mills  on  one  side 
and  six  cotton  factories  on  the  other.  It  is  the 
wealth  of  two  hundred  miles  of  luxuriant  farms. 
The  birds  of  heaven  chanted  when  it  was  born  in 
the  mountains,  and  the  ocean  shipping  will  press  in 
from  the  sea  to  hail  it  as  it  comes  down  to  the  Atlan- 
tic coast.  The  one  river  is  a  man  who  lives  for  him- 

310 


SHAMS   IN   RELIGION.  311 

self.  The  other  river  is  a  man  who  lives  for  others. 
I  think  you  will  agree  with  me  in  the  statement  that 
the  great  want  of  this  world  is  more  practical  reli- 
gion. We  want  practical  religion  to  go  into  all  mer- 
chandise. It  will  supervise  the  labeling  of  goods. 
It  will  not  allow  a  man  to  say  that  a  thing  was  made 
in  one  factory  when  it  was  made  in  another.  It  will 
not  allow  the  merchant  to  say  that  watch  was  man- 
ufactured in  Geneva,  Switzerland,  when  it  was  man- 
ufactured in  Massachusetts.  It  will  not  allow  the 
merchant  to  say  that  wine  came  from  Madeira  when 
it  came  from  California.  Practical  religion  will  walk 
along  by  the  store  shelves,  and  tear  off  all  the  tags 
that  make  misrepresentation.  It  will  not  allow  the 
merchant  to  say  that  is  pure  coffee,  when  dandelion 
root  and  chicory  and  other  ingredients  go  into  it. 
It  will  not  allow  him  to  say  that  is  pure  sugar,  when 
there  are  in  it  sand  and  ground  glass. 

When  practical  religion  gets  its  full  swing  in  the 
world  it  will  go  down  the  street,  and  it  will  come  to 
that  shoe  store  and  rip  off  the  fictitious  soles  of  many 
a  fine-looking  pair  of  shoes,  and  show  that  it  is  paste- 
board sandwiched  between  the  sound  leather.  And 
this  practical  religion  will  go  right  into  a  grocery 
store,  and  it  will  pull  out  the  plug  of  all  the  adulterated 
syrups,  and  it  will  dump  into  the  ash-barrel,  in  front 
of  the  store,  the  cassia  bark  that  is  sold  for  cinnamon 
and  the  brickdust  that  is  sold  for  cayenne  pepper; 
and  it  will  shake  out  the  Prussia  blue  from  the  tea 
leaves,  and  it  will  sift  from  the  flour  plaster  of  Paris 
and  bonedust  and  soapstone,  and  it  will,  by  chemical 
analysis,  separate  the  one  quart  of  Ridge  wood  water 
from  the  few  honest  drops  of  cow's  milk,  and  it  will 
throw  out  the  live  animalcules  from  the  brown  sugar. 


312  SHAMS    IN    RELIGION. 

There  has  been  so  much  adulteration  of  articles  of 
food  that  it  is  an  amazement  to  me  that  there  is  a 
healthy  man  or  woman  in  America.  Heaven  only 
knows  what  they  put  into  the  spices  and  into  the 
sugars  and  into  the  butter,  and  into  the  apothecary 
drug.  But  chemical  analysis  and  the  microscope 
have  made  wonderful  revelations.  The  Board  of 
Health  in  Massachusetts  analyzed  a  great  amount  of 
what  was  called  pure  coffee,  and  found  in  it  not  one 
particle  of  coffee.  In  England  there  is  a  law  that  for- 
bids the  putting  of  alum  in  bread.  The  public  authori- 
ties examined  fifty-one  packages  of  bread,  and  found 
them  all  guilty.  The  honest  physican,  writing  a  pre- 
scription, does  not  know  but  that  it  may  bring  death 
instead  of  health  to  his  patient,  because  there  may  be 
one  of  the  drugs  weakened  by  a  cheaper  article,  and 
another  drug  may  be  in  full  force,  and  so  the  pre- 
scription may  have  just  the  opposite  effect  intended. 
Oil  of  wormwood  warranted  pure  from  Boston  was 
found  to  have  forty -one  per  cent,  of  resin  and  alcohol 
and  chloroform.  Scammony  is  one  of  the  most  valu- 
able medical  drugs.  It  is  very  rare,  very  precious. 
It  is  the  sap  or  the  gum  of  a  tree  or  a  bush  in  Syria. 
The  root  of  the  tree  is  exposed  ;  an  incision  is  made 
into  the  root,  and  then  shells  are  placed  at  this  inci- 
sion to  catch  the  sap  or  the  gum,  as  it  exudes.  It  is 
very  precious,  this  scammony.  But  the  peasant  mixes 
it  with  a  cheaper  material ;  then  it  is  taken  to  Aleppo, 
and  the  merchant  there  mixes  it  with  a  cheaper  mate- 
rial ;  then  it  comes  on  to  the  wholesale  druggist  in 
London  or  New  York,  and  he  mixes  it  with  a  cheaper 
material ;  then  it  comes  to  the  retail  druggist,  and  he 
mixes  it  with  a  cheaper  material,  and  by  the  time 
the  poor  sick  man  gets  it  into  his  bottle,  it  is  ashes  and 


SHAMS   IN   RELIGION.  313 

chalk  and  sand,  and  some  of  what  has  been  called 
pure  scammony  after  analysis,  has  been  found  to  be 
no  scammony  at  all. 

Now,  practical  religion  will  yet  rectify  all  this.  It 
will  go  to  those  hypocritical  professors  of  religion 
who  got  a  "  corner  "  in  corn  and  wheat  in  Chicago 
and  New  York,  sending  prices  up  and  up  until  they 
were  beyond  the  reach  of  the  poor,  keeping  these 
breadstuffs  in  their  own  hands,  or  controlling  them 
until  the  prices  going  up  and  up  and  up,  they  were, 
after  a  while,  ready  to  sell,  and  they  sold  out,  making 
themselves  millionaires  in  one  or  two  years — trying 
to  fix  the  matter  up  with  the  Lord  by  building  % 
church,  or  a  university,  or  a  hospital — deluding  them- 
selves with  the  idea  that  the  Lord  would  be  so 
pleased  with  the  gift  He  would  forget  the  swindle. 
Now,  as  such  a  man  may  not  have  any  liturgy  in 
which  to  say  his  prayers,  I  will  compose  for  him  one 
which  he  practically  is  making:  "O  Lord,  we,  by 
getting  a  '  corner  '  in  breadstuffs,  swindled  the  people 
of  the  United  States  out  of  ten  million  dollars,  and 
made  suffering  all  up  and  down  the  land,  and  we 
would  like  to  compromise  the  matter  with  Thee. 
Thou  knowest  it  was  a  scaly  job,  but  then  it  was 
smart.  Now,  here  we  compromise  it.  Take  one  per 
cent,  of  the  profits,  and  with  that  one  per  cent,  you 
can  build  an  asylum  for  these  poor  miserable  raga- 
muffinS:Of  the  street,  and  I  will  take  a  yacht  and  go 
to  Europe,  forever  and  ever.  Amen  !  " 

Ah  !  my  friends,  if  a  man  hath  gotten  his  estate 
wrongfully  and  he  build  a  line  of  hospitals  and  uni- 
versities from  here  to  Alaska,  he  cannot  atone  for  it. 
After  a  while,  this  man  who  has  been  getting  a  "cor- 
ner "  in  wheat,  dies,  and  then  Satan  gets  a  "  corner-' 


314  SHAMS   IN    RELIGION. 

in  him.  He  goes  into  a  great,  long  Black  Friday. 
There  is  a  "break"  in  the  market.  According  to 
Wall  Street  parlance,  he  wiped  others  out,  and  now 
he  is  himself  wiped  out.  No  collaterals  on  which  to 
make  a  spiritual  loan.  Eternal  defalcation. 

But  this  practical  religion  will  not  only  rectify  all 
merchandise ;  it  will  also  rectify  all  mechanism,  and 
all  toil.  A  time  will  come  when  a  man  will  work  as 
faithfully  by  the  job  as  he  does  by  the  day.  You  say 
when  a  thing  is  slightingly  done:  "Oh,  that  was 
done  by  the  job."  You  can  tell  by  the  swiftness  or 
slowness  with  which  a  hackman  drives  whether  he  is 
hired  by  the  hour  or  by  the  excursion.  If  he  is  hired 
by  the  hour  he  drives  very  slowly,  so  as  to  make  as 
many  hours  as  possible.  If  he  is  hired  by  the  excur- 
sion, he  whips  up  the  horses  so  as  to  get  around  and 
get  another  customer.  All  styles  of  work  have  to  be 
inspected.  Ships  inspected,  horses  inspected,  ma- 
chinery inspected.  Boss  to  watch  the  journeyman. 
Capitalist  coming  down  unexpectedly  to  watch  the 
boss.  Conductor  of  a  city  car  sounding  the  punch 
bell  to  prove  his  honesty  as  a  passenger  hands  to  him 
a  clipped  nickel.  All  things  must  be  watched  and 
inspected.  Imperfections  in  the  wood  covered  with 
putty.  Garments  warranted  to  last  until  you  put 
them  on  the  third  time.  Shoddy  in  all  kinds  of  cloth- 
ing. Chromos.  Pinchbeck.  Diamonds  for  a  dollar 
and  a  half.  Bookbinding  that  holds  on  until  you 
read  the  third  chapter.  Spavined  horses,  by  skillful 
dose  of  jockeys,  for  several  days  made  to  look  spry. 
Wagon  tires  poorly  put  on.  Horses  poorly  shod. 
Plastering  that  cracks  without  any  provocation,  and 
falls  off.  Plumbing  that  needs  to  be  plumbed.  Im- 
perfect car  wheel  that  halts  the  whole  train  with  a 


SHAMS   IN    RELIGION.  315 

hoi  box.  So  little  practical  religion  in  the  mech- 
anism of  the  world.  I  tell  you,  my  friends,  the  law  of 
man  will  ne\7er  rectify  these  things.  It  will  be  the 
all-pervading  influence  of  the  practical  religion  of 
Jesus  Christ  that  will  make  the  change  for  the 
better. 

Yes,  this  practical  religion  will  also  go  into  agri- 
culture, which  is  proverbially  honest,  but  needs  to 
be  rectified,  and  it  will  keep  the  farmer  from  sending 
to  the  New  York  market,  veal  that  is  too  young  to 
kill,  and  when  the  farmer  farms  on  shares,  it  will 
keep  the  man  who  does  the  work  from  making  his 
half  three-fourths,  and  it  will  keep  the  farmer  from 
building  his  post  and  rail  fence  on  his  neighbor's 
premises,  and  it  will  make  him  shelter  his  cattle  in 
the  winter  storm,  and  it  will  keep  the  old  elder  from 
working  on  Sunday  afternoon  in  the  new  ground 
where  nobody  sees  him.  And  this  practical  religion 
will  hover  over  the  house,  and  over  the  barn,  and 
over  the  field,  and  over  the  orchard. 

Yes,  this  practical  religion  of  which  I  speak,  will 
come  into  the  learned  professions.  The  lawyer  will 
feel  his  responsibility  in  defending  innocence  and 
arraigning  evil,  and  expounding  the  law,  and  it  will 
keep  him  from  charging  for  briefs  he  never  wrote, 
and  for  pleas  he  never  made,  and  for  percentages  he 
never  earned,  and  from  robbing  widow  and  orphan, 
because  they  are  defenceless.  Yes,  this  practical  re- 
ligion will  come  into  the  physician's  life,  and  he  will 
feel  his  responsibility  as  the  conservator  of  the  public 
health,  a  profession  honored  by  the  fact  that  Christ 
Himself  was  a  physician.  And  it  will  make  him  hon- 
est, and  when  he  does  not  understand  a  case,  he  will 
say  so,  not  trying  to  cover  up  lack  of  diagnosis  with 


316  SHAMS   IN    RELIGION.     • 

ponderous  technicalities,  or  send  the  patient  to  a 
reckless  drugstore,  because  the  apothecary  happens 
to  pay  a  percentage  on  the  prescriptions  sent.  And 
this  practical  religion  will  come  to  the  school-teacher, 
making  her  feel  her  responsibility  in  preparing  our 
youth  for  usefulness,  and  for  happiness,  and  for  honor, 
and  will  keep  her  from  giving  a  sly  box  to  a  dull 
head,  chastising  him  for  what  he  can  not  help,  and 
sending  discouragement  all  through  the  after  years 
of  a  lifetime.  This  practical  religion  will  also  come 
to  the  newspaper  men,  and  it  will  help  them  in  the 
gathering  of  the  news,  and  it  will  help  them  in  set- 
ting forth  the  best  interests  of  society,  and  it  will 
keep  them  from  putting  the  sins  of  the  world  in 
larger  type  than  its  virtues,  and  its  mistakes  than  its 
achievements,  and  it  will  keep  them  from  misrepre- 
senting interviews  with  public  men,  and  from  start- 
ing suspicions  that  never  can  be  allayed,  and  will 
make  them  stanch  friends  of  the  oppressed  instead  of 
the  oppressor. 

Yes,  this  religion,  this  practical  religion,  will  come 
and  put  its  hand  on  what  is  called  good  society,  ele- 
vated society,  successful  society,  so  that  people  will 
have  their  expenditures  within  their  income,  and 
they  will  exchange  the  hypocritical  "  not  at  home  " 
for  the  honest  explanation  "  too  tired,"  or  "  too  busy 
to  see  you,"  and  will  keep  innocent  reception  from 
becoming  intoxicated  conviviality,  and  it  will  by 
frank  manners  and  Christian  sentiment  drive  out  that 
creature  with  sharp-toed  shoe  and  tightly  bandaged 
limb,  and  elbows  drawn  back,  and  idiotic  talk,  and 
infinitesimal  cane,  and  sickening  swagger,  born  in 
America,  but  a  poor  copy  of  a  foppish  Englishman, 
the  nux  vomica  of  modern  society,  commonly  called 
the  "  Dude." 


SHAMS   IN   RELIGION.  317 

Yea,  there  is  great  opportunity  for  missionary 
work  in  what  are  called  the  successful  classes  of 
society.  It  is  no  rare  thing  now  to  see  a  fashionable 
woman  intoxicated  in  the  street,  or  the  rail-car,  or 
the  restaurant.  The  number  of  fine  ladies  who  drink 
too  much  is  increasing.  Perhaps  you  may  find  her 
at  the  reception  in  most  exalted  company,  but  she 
has  made  too  many  visits  to  the  wine  room,  and  now 
her  eye  is  glassy,  and  after  a  while  her  cheek  is  un- 
naturally flushed,  and  then  she  falls  into  fits  of  excru- 
ciating laughter  about  nothing,  and  then  she  offers 
sickening  flatteries,  telling  some  homely  man  how 
well  he  looks,  and  then  she  is  helped  into  the  car- 
riage, and  by  the  time  the  carriage  gets  to  her  home, 
it  takes  the  husband  and  the  coachman  to  get  her  up 
the  stairs.  The  report  is,  She  was  taken  suddenly  ill 
at  a  german.  Ah  !  no.  She  took  too  much  cham- 
pagne, and  mixed  liquors,  and  got  drunk.  That 
was  all. 

Yea,  this  practical  religion  will  have  to  come  in  and 
fix  up  the  marriage  relation  in  America.  There  are 
members  of  churches  who  have  too  many  wives  and 
too  many  husbands.  Society  needs  to  be  expurgated, 
and  washed,  and  fumigated,  and  Christianized.  We 
have  missionary  societies  to  reform  the  Five  Points 
in  New  York,  and  "Bedford  Street,  Philadelphia,  and 
Shoreditch,  London,  and  the  Brooklyn  docks ;  but 
there  is  need  of  an  organization  to  reform  much  that 
is  going  on  in  Beacon  Street,  aud  Madison  Square, 
and  Rittenhouse  Square,  and  West  End,  and  Brook- 
lyn Heights,  and  Brooklyn  Hill.  The  trouble  is  that 
people  have  an  idea  the}7  can  do  all  their  religion  on 
Sunday  with  hymn-book,  and  prayer-book,  and  lit- 
urgy, and  some  of  them  sit  in  church  rolling  up  their 


318  SHAMS   IX    RELIGION. 

eyes  as  though  they  were  ready  for  translation,  when 
their  Sabbath  is  bounded  on  all  sides  by  an  incon- 
sistent life,  and  while  you  are  expecting  to  come  out 
from  under  their  arms  the  wings  of  an  angel,  there 
come  out  from  their  forehead  the  horns  of  a  beast. 

There  has  got  to  be  a  new  departure  in  religion.  I 
do  not  say  a  new  religion.  Oh,  no  ;  but  the  old  re- 
ligion brought  to  new  appliances.  In  our  time  we 
have  had  the  daguerreotype,  and  the  ambrotype,  and 
the  photograph  ;  but  it  is  the  same  old  sun,  and  these 
arts  are  only  new  appliances  of  the  old  sunlight.  So 
this  glorious  Gospel  is  just  what  we  want  to  photo- 
graph the  image  of  God  on  one  soul,  and  daguer- 
reotype it  on  another  soul.  Not  a  new  Gospel,  but 
the  old  Gospel  put  to  new  work.  In  our  time  we 
have  had  the  telegraphic  invention,  and  the  tele- 
phofiic  invention,  and  the  electric  light  invention ; 
but  they  are  all  the  children  of  old  electricity,  an  ele- 
ment that  the  philosophers  have  a  long  while  known 
much  about.  So  this  electric  Gospel  needs  to  flash 
its  light  on  the  eyes,  and  ears,  and  souls  of  men,  and 
become  a  telephonic  medium  to  make  the  deaf  hear; 
a  telegraphic  medium  to  dart  invitation  and  warning 
to  all  nations;  an  electric  light  to  illumine  the 
Eastern  and  Western  hemispheres.  Not  a  new  Gos- 
pel, but  the  old  Gospel  doing  a  new  work. 

Now  you  say,  "  That  is  a  very  beautiful  theory, 
but  is  it  possible  to  take  one's  religion  into  all  the 
avocations  and  business  of  life?"  Yes,  and  I  will 
give  you  some  specimens.  Medical  doctors  who 
took  their  religion  into  everyday  life  :  Dr.  John 
Abercrombie,  of  Aberdeen,  the  greatest  Scottish 
physician  of  his  day,  his  book  on  "  Diseases  of  the 
Brain  and  Spinal  Cord,"  no  more  wonderful  than  his 
book  on  "  The  Philosophy  of  the  Moral  Feelings," 


SHAMS   IN   RELIGION.  319 

and  often  kneeling  at  the  bedside  of  his  patients  to 
commend  them  to  God  in  prayer.  Dr.  John  Brown, 
of  Edinburgh,  immortal  as  an  author,  dying  recently 
under  the  benediction  of  the  sick  of  Edinburgh  ; 
myself  remembering  him  as  he  sat  in  his  study  in 
Edinburgh  talking  to  me  about  Christ,  and  his  hope 
of  heaven.  And  a  score  of  Christian  family  physi- 
cians in  Brooklyn  just  as  good  as  they  were. 

Lawyers  who  carried  their  religion  into  their  pro- 
fession :  Lord  Cairns,  the  queen's  adviser  for  many 
years,  the  highest  legal  authority  in  Great  Britain — 
Lord  Cairns,  every  summer  in  his  vacation  preaching 
as  an  evangelist  among  the  poor  of  his  country. 
John  McLean,  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  and  President  of  the  American  Sun- 
day-School Union,  feeling  more  satisfaction  in  the 
latter  office  than  in  the  former.  And  scores  of 
Christian  lawyers  as  eminent  in  the  Church  of  God 
as  they  are  eminent  at  the  bar. 

Merchants  who  took  their  religion  into  everyday 
life:  Arthur  Tappan,  derided  in  his  day  because  he 
established  that  system  by  which  we  come  to  find 
out  the  commercial  standing  of  business  men,  starting 
that  entire  system,  derided  for  it  then,  himself,  as  I 
knew  him  well,  in  moral  character  A  i.  Monday 
mornings  inviting  to  a  room  in  the  top  of  his  store- 
house the  clerks  of  his  establishment,  asking  them 
about  their  worldly  interests  and  their  spiritual 
interests,  then  giving  out  a  hymn,  leading  in  a  prayer, 
giving  them  a  few  words  of  good  advice,  asking 
them  what  church  they  attended  on  the  Sabbath, 
what  the  text  was,  whether  they  had  any  special 
troubles  of  their  own.  Arthur  Tappan.  I  never 
heard  his  eulogy  pronounced.  I  pronounce  it  now. 
And  other  merchants  just  as  good.  William  E. 


320  SHAMS    I\    RELIGION. 

Docile,  in  the  iron  business,  Moses  II.  Grinnell,  in 
the  shipping"  business,  Peter  Cooper,  in  the  glue  bus- 
iness. Scores  of  men  just  as  good  as  they  were. 

Farmers  who  take  their  religion  into  their  occupa- 
tion :  Why,  this  minute  their  horses  and  wagons 
stand  around  all  the  meeting-houses  in  America. 
They  began  this  day  by  a  prayer  to  God,  and  when 
they  get  home  at  noon,  after  they  have  put  their 
horses  up,  will  offer  a  prayer  to  God  at  the  table, 
seeking  a  blessing,  and  this  summer  there  will  be  in 
their  fields  not  one  dishonest  head  of  rye,  not  one 
dishonest  ear  of  corn,  not  one  dishonest  apple.  Wor- 
shiping God  to-day  away  up  among  the  Berkshire 
Hills,  or  away  down  amid  the  lagoons  of  Florida,  or 
away  out  amid  the  mines  of  Colorado,  or  along  the 
banks  of  the  Passaic  and  the  Raritan. 

Mechanics  who  took  their  religion  into  their  oc- 
cupations: James  Brindley,  the  famous  millwright, 
Nathaniel  Bowditch,  the  famous  ship  chandler,  Elihu 
Burritt,  the  famous  blacksmith,  and  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  strong  arms  which  haye  made  the  ham- 
mer and  the  saw  and  the  adze  and  the  drill  and  the 
axe  sound '  in  the  grand  march  of  our  national  in- 
dustries. 

Give  your  heart  to  God  and  then  fill  your  life  with 
good  works.  Consecrate  to  Him  your  store,  your 
shop,  your  banking  house,  your  factory,  and  your 
home.  They  say  no  one  will  hear  it.  God  will  hear 
it.  That  is  enough.  You  hardly  know  of  any  one 
else  than  Wellington,  as  connected  with  the  victory 
at  Waterloo  ;  but  he  did  not  do  the  hard  fighting. 
The  hard  fighting  was  done  by  the  Somerset  cavalry 
and  the  Ryland  regiments,  and  Kempt's  infantry,  and 
the  Scotch  Grays,  and  the  Life  Guards.  Who  cares, 
if  only  the  day  was  won  ? 


SHAMS   IN   RELIGION.  321 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century,  a  girl  in 
England  became  a  kitchen  maid  in  a  farmhouse. 
She  had  many  styles  of  work  and  much  hard  work. 
Time  rolled  on,  and  she  married  the  son  of  a  weaver 
of  Halifax.  They  were  industrious,  they  saved 
money  enough  after  a  while  to  build  them  a  home. 
On  the  morning  of  the  day  when  they  were  to  enter 
that  home,  the  young  wife  arose  at  four  o'clock, 
entered  the  front  door-yard,  knelt  down,  consecrated 
the  place  to  God,  and  there  made  this  solemn  vow : 
"  O  Lord,  if  Thou  wilt  bless  me  in  this  place,  the 
poor  shall  have  a  share  of  it."  Time  rolled  on  and  a 
fortune  rolled  in.  Children  grew  up  around  them, 
and  they  all  became  affluent.  One,  a  Member  of 
Parliament,  in  a  public  place  declared  that  his  success 
came  from  that  prayer  of  his  mother  in  the  door- 
yard.  All  of  them  were  affluent, — four  thousand 
hands  in  their  factories.  They  built  dwelling  houses 
for  laborers  at  cheap  rents,  and  where  they  were 
invalid,  and  could  not  pay,  they  had  the  houses  for 
nothing.  One  of  these  sons  came  to  this  country, 
admired  our  parks,  went  back,  bought  land,  opened 
a  great  public  park,  and  made  it  a  present  to  the  city 
of  Halifax,  England.  They  endowed  an  orphanage, 
they  endowed  two  almshouses.  All  England  has 
heard  of  the  generosity  and  the  good  works  of  the 
Crossleys.  Moral :  Consecrate  to  God  your  small 
means  and  your  humble  surroundings,  and  you  will 
have  larger  means  and  grander  surroundings.  "God- 
liness is  profitable  unto  all  things,  having  promise  of 
the  life  that  now  is,  and  of  that  which  is  to  come." 
"  Have  faith  in  God  by  all  means,  but  remember  that 
faith  without  works  is  dead." 


CHAPTER    XXXII. 

THE  BEAUTY   OF  RELIGION. 

The  crystal  is  the  star  of  the  mountain ;  it  is  the 
queen  of  the  cave  ;  it  is  the  ear-drop  of  the  hills  ;  it 
finds  its  heaven  in  the  diamond.  Among  all  the 
pages  of  natural  history  there  is  no  page  more  inter- 
esting to  me  than  the  page  crystallographic. 

Religion  is  superior  to  the  crystal  in  exactness. 
That  shapeless  mass  of  crystal  against  which  you 
accidentally  dashed  your  foot  is  laid  out  with  more 
exactness  than  any  earthly  city.  There  are  six  styles 
of  crystalization,  and  all  of  them  divinely  ordained. 
Every  crystal  has  mathematical  precision.  God's 
geometry  reaches  through  it,  and  it  is  a  square  or  it 
is  a  rectangle  or  it  is  a  rhomboid  or  in  some  w,ay  it 
hath  a  mathematical  figure. 

Now  religion  beats  that  in  the  simple  fact  that  spir- 
itual accuracy  is  more  beautiful  than  material  accu- 
racy. God's  attributes  are  exact.  God's  law  exact. 
God's  decrees  exact.  God's  management  of  the 
world  exact.  Never  counting  wrong,  though  He 
counts  the  grass-blades  and  the  stars  and  the  sands 
and  the  cycles.  His  providences  never  dealing  with 
us  perpendicularly  when  those  providences  ought  to 
be  oblique,  nor  lateral  when  they  ought  to  be  verti- 
cal. Everything  in  our  life  arranged  without  any 
possibility  of  mistake.  Each  life  a  six-sided  prism. 
Born  at  the  right  time  ;  dying  at  the  right  time. 
There  are  no  "  happen-so's  "  in  our  theology. 

322 


RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCE. 
[After  A.  Seifert.] 


THE  BEAUTY  OF  RELIGION.  325 

If  I  thought  this  was  a  slipshod  universe  I  would 
go  crazy.  God  is  not  an  anarchist.  Law,  order, 
symmetry,  precision,  a  perfect  square,  a  perfect  rec- 
tangle, a  perfect  rhomboid,  a  perfect  circle.  The 
edge  of  God's  robe  of  government  never  frays  out. 
There  are  no  loose  screws  in  the  world's  machinery. 
It  did  not  just  happen  that  Napoleon  was  attacked 
with  indigestion  at  Borodino  so  that  he  became  incom- 
petent for  the  day.  It  did  not  just  happen  that  John 
Thomas,  the  missionary,  on  a  heathen  island,  waiting 
for  an  outfit  and  orders  for  another  missionary  tour, 
received  that  outfit  and  those  orders  in  a  box  that 
floated  ashore,  while  the  ship  and  the  crew  that  car- 
ried the  box  were  never  heard  of.  The  barking  of 
F.  W.  Robertson's  dog,  he  tells  us,  led  to  a  line  of 
events  which  brought  him  from  the  army  into  the 
Christian  ministry,  where  he  served  God  with  world- 
renowned  usefulness.  It  did  not  merely  happen  so. 
I  believe  in  a  particular  providence.  I  believe  God's 
geometry  may  be  seen  in  all  our  life  more  beautifully 
than  in  crystallography.  Job  was  right.  "  The  crys- 
tal can  not  equal  it." 

Just  after  my  arrival  in  Philadelphia  to  take  a  pas- 
torate I  was  called  to  a  house  of  great  sorrow.  The 
family  had  been  to  Cape  May  for  summering.  The 
son  of  the  household  had  been  drowned  in  a  pond 
not  far  from  the  beach.  As  I  entered  the  afflicted 
home  and  the  lad  prepared  for  the  sepulchre  lay  in 
one  room,  there  rang  through  the  hall  the  wailing  of 
the  father  and  the  mother,  a  grief  appalling  and  inde- 
scribable. The  parents  said  they  could  not  forgive 
themselves,  because  they  had  changed  their  plans  for 
the  summer  and  had  not  gone  to  the  White  Mount- 
ains as  they  had  proposed,  and  had  gone  to  Cape  May. 


326  THE   BEAUTY   OF   RELIGION. 

"  Oh,"  I  said  to  them,  "  do  not  say,  '  I  wish  we  had 
gone  to  the  mountains  instead  of  going  to  Cape 
May  ; '  do  you  not  think  God  has  arranged  all  this  ? 
You  cannot  understanq1  now  the  mercy  of  it,  but 
trust  Him;  there  are  no  accidents;  the  God  who 
arranges  all  the  affairs  of  your  life  arranged  the  death 
of  that  boy."  Do  not  say,  as  I  have  often  heard  some 
of  you  say,  "  Oh,  if  I  had  not  gone  here  and  if  I  had 
not  gone  there,  this  would  not  have  occurred,  and 
that  would  not  have  occurred !  "  Things  are  not  at 
loose  ends.  Precision,  accuracy.  Job  was  right: 
"  The  crystal  cannot  equal  it." 

Religion  is  superior  to  the  crystal  in  transparency. 
We  know  not  when  or  by  whom  glass  was  first  dis- 
covered. Beads  of  it  have  been  found  in  the  tomb 
of  Alexander  Severus.  Vases  of  it  are  brought  up 
from  the  ruins  of  Herculaneum.  There  are  female 
adornments  made  out  of  it  three  thousand  years  ago 
—those  adornments  found  now  attached  to  the  mum- 
mies of  Egypt.  A  great  many  commentators  believe 
that  my  text  means  glass.  What  would  we  do  with- 
out the  crystal  ?  The  crystal  in  the  window  to  keep 
out  the  storm,  and  let  in  the  day — the  crystal  over 
the  watch  defending  its  delicate  machinery,  yet 
allowing  us  to  see  the  hour — the  crystal  of  the  teles- 
cope by  which  the  astronomer  brings  distant  worlds 
so  near  he  can  inspect  them.  Oh,  the  triumphs  of 
the  crystals  in  the  celebrated  windows  of  Rouen  and 
Salisbury  ! 

But  there  is  nothing  so  transparent  in  a  crystal  as 
in  our  holy  religion.  It  is  a  transparent  religion. 
You  put  it  to  your  eye  and  you  see  man — his  sin,  his 
soul,  his  destiny.  You  look  at  God  and  you  see 
something  of  the  grandeur  of  His  character.  It  is  a 


THE   BEAUTY   OF   RELIGION.  327 

transparent  religion.  Infidels  tell  us  it  is  opaque. 
Do  you  know  why  they  tell  us  it  is  opaque  ?  It  is 
because  they  are  blind.  The  natural  man  receiveth 
not  the  things  of  God  because  they  are  spiritually 
discerned.  There  is  no  trouble  with  the  crystal  ;  the 
trouble  is  with  the  eyes  which  try  to  look  through  it. 
We  pray  for  vision,  Lord,  that  our  eyes  might  be 
opened.  When  the  eye-salve  cures  our  blindness 
then  we  find  that  religion  is  transparent. 

It  is  a  transparent  Bible.  All  the  mountains  of 
the  Bible  come  out;  Sinai,  the  mountain  of  the  law  ; 
Pisgah,  the  mountain  of  prospect ;  Olivet,  the 
mountain  of  instruction  ;  Calvary,  the  mountain  of 
sacrifice.  All  the  rivers  of  the  Bible  come  out — 
Hidekel,  or  the  river  of  paradisaical  beauty  ;  Jordan, 
or  the  river  of  hot)-  chrism  ;  Cherith,  or  the  river  of 
prophetic  supply  ;  Nile,  or  the  river  of  palaces  ;  and 
the  pure  river  of  life  from  under  the  throne  clear  as 
crystal.  While  reading  this  Bible  after  our  eyes 
have  been  touched  by  grace,  we  find  it  all  transpa- 
rent, and  the  earth  rocks,  now  with  crucifixion  agony 
and  now  with  judgment  terror,  and  Christ  appears 
in  some  of  His  two  hundred  and  fifty-six  titles,  as  far 
as  I  can  count  them — the  bread,  the  rock,  the  cap- 
tain, the  commander,  the  conqueror,  the  star,  and  on 
and  beyond  any  capacity  of  mind  to  rehearse  them. 
Transparent  religion ! 

The  providence  that  seemed  dark  before  becomes 
pellucid.  Now  you  find  God  is  not  trying  to  put  you 
down.  Now  you  understand  why  you  lost  that  child, 
and  why  you  lost  your  property  ;  it  was  to  prepare 
you  for  eternal  treasures.  And  why  sickness  came: 
it  being  the  precursor  of  immortal  juvenescence. 
And  now  you  understand  why  they  lied  about  you, 


328  THE   BEAUTY   OF   RELIGION. 

and  tried  to  drive  you  hither  and  thither.  It  was  to 
put  you  in  the  glorious  company  of  such  men  as  Ig- 
natius, \vho,  when  he  went  out  to  be  destroyed  by 
the  lions,  said :  •'  I  am  the  wheat,  and  the  teeth  of 
the  wild  beasts  must  first  grind  me  before  I  can  be- 
come pure  bread  for  Jesus  Christ ;  "  or  the  company 
of  such  men  as  Polycarp,  who,  when  standing  in  the 
midst  of  the  amphitheater  waiting  for  the  lions  to 
come  out  of  their  cave  and  destroy  him,  and  the  peo- 
ple in  the  galleries  jeering  and  shouting,  "  The  lions 
for  Polycarp,"  replied :  "  Let  them  come  on,"  and 
then  stooping  down  toward  the  cave  where  the  wild 
beasts  were  roaring  to  get  out,  "  Let  them  come  on." 
Ah,  yes,  it  is  persecution  to  put  you  in  glorious  com- 
pany ;  and  while  there  are  many  things  that  you  will 
have  to  postpone  to  the  future  world  for  explanation, 
I  tell  you  that  it  is  the  whole  tendency  of  your  reli- 
gion to  unravel  and  explain  and  interpret  and  illu- 
mine and  irradiate. 

Religion  surpasses  the  crystal  in  its  beauty. 

That  lump  of  crystal  is  put  under  the  magnifying 
glass  of  the  crystallographer,  and  he  sees  in  it  indes- 
cribable beauty — snowdrift  and  splinters  of  hoar-frost 
and  corals  and  wreaths  and  stars  and  crowns  and 
castellations  of  conspicuous  beauty.  The  fact  is  that 
crystal  is  so  beautiful  that  I  can  think  of  but  one  thing 
in  all  the  universe  that  is  so  beautiful,  and  that  is  the 
religion  of  the  Bible.  No  wonder  this  Bible  rep- 
resents that  religion  as  the  daybreak,  as  the  apple 
blossoms,  as  the  glitter  of  a  king's  banquet.  It  is  the 
joy  of  the  whole  earth. 

People  talk  too  much  about  their  cross,  and  not . 
enough  about  their  crown.     Do  you  know  the  Bible 
mentions  a  cross    but   twenty-seven   times  while   it 


THE   BEAUTY   OF   RELIGION.  329 

mentions  a  crown  eighty  times?  Ask  that  old  man 
what  he  thinks  of  religion.  He  has  been  a  close  ob- 
server. He  has  been  culturing  an  aesthetic  taste. 
He  has  seen  the  sunrises  of  a  half  century.  He  has 
been  an  early  riser.  He  has  been  an  admirer  of 
cameos,  and  corals,  and  all  kinds  of  beautiful  things. 
Ask  him  what  he  thinks  of  religion,  and  he  will  tell 
you,  "it  is  the  most  beautiful  thing  I  ever  saw.  The 
crystal  can  not  equal  it." 

Beautiful  in  its  symmetry.  When  it  presents  God's 
character  it  does  not  present  Him  as  having  love  like 
a  great  protuberance  on  one  side  of  His  nature,  but 
makes  that  love  in  harmony  with  His  justice — a  love 
that  will  accept  all  those  who  come  to  Him,  and  a 
justice  that  will  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty.  Beau- 
tiful religion  in  the  sentiment  it  implants!  Beautiful 
religion  in  the  hope  it  kindles!  Beautiful  religion  in 
the  fact  that  it  proposes  to  garland,  and  enthrone, 
and  emparadise  an  immortal  spirit !  Solomon  says 
it  is  a  lily.  Paul  says  it  is  a  crown.  The  Apocalypse 
says  it  is  a  fountain  kissed  of  the  sun.  Ezekiel  says 
it  is  a  foliage  cedar.  Christ  says  it  is  a  bridegroom 
come  to  fetch  home  a  bride.  While  Job  takes  up  a 
whole  vase  of  precious  stones — the  topaz,  and  the 
sapphire,  and  the  chrysoprase — and  he  takes  out  of  this 
beautiful  vase  just  one  crystal  and  holds  it  up  until  it 
gleams  in  the  warm  light  of  the  eastern  sky,  and  he 
exclaims,  "The  crystal  can  not  equal  it." 

Oh,  it  is  not  a  stale  religion,  it  is  not  a  stupid  re- 
ligion, it  is  not  a  toothless  hag,  as  some  seem  to  have 
represented  it;  it  is  not  a  Meg  Merrilies  with  shriv- 
eled arm  come  to  scare  the  world.  It  is  the  fairest 
daughter  of  God,  heiress  of  all  His  wealth.  Her 
cheek  the  morning  sky;  her  voice  the  music  of  the 


330  THE   BEAUTY   OF   RELIGION. 

south  wind;  her  step  the  dance  of  the  sea.  Come 
and  woo  her.  The  Spirit  and  the  Bride  say  come, 
and  whosoever  will,  let  him  come.  Do  you  agree 
with  Solomon,  and  say  it  is  a  lilv?  Then  pluck  it, 
and  wear  it  over  your  heart.  Do  vou  agree  with 
Paul,  and  say  it  is  a  crown?  Then  let  this  hour  be 
your  coronation.  Do  you  agree  with  the  Apocalypse, 
and  say  it  is  a  springing  fountain  ?  Then  come  and 
slake  the  thirst  of  vour  soul.  Do  you  believe 
with  Ezekiel,  and  say  it  is  a  foliaged  cedar?  Then 
come  under  its  shadow.  Do  you  believe  with  Christ 
and  say  it  is  a  bridegroom  come  to  fetch  home  a 
bride  ?  Then  strike  hands  with  your  Lord,  the  king, 
while  I  pronounce  you  everlastingly  one.  Or  if  you 
think  with  Job  that  it  is  a  jewel,  then  put  it  on  your 
hand  like  a  ring,  on  your  neck  like  a  bead,  on 
vour  forehead  like  a  star,  while  looking  into  the 
mirror  of  God's  Word  you  acknowledge  "The  crystal 
cannot  equal  it." 

Religion  is  superior  to  the  crystal  in  its  transfor- 
mations. 

The  diamond  is  only  a  crystalization  of  coal.  Car- 
bonate of  lime  rises  till  it  becomes  calcite  or  ara- 
gonite.  Red  oxide  of  copper  crystalizes  into  cubes 
and  octahedrons.  Those  crystals  which  adorn  our 
persons,  and  our  homes,  and  our  museums,  have  only 
been  resurrected  from  forms  that  were  far  from  lus- 
trous. Scientists  for  ages  have  been  examining  these 
wonderful  transformations.  But  I  tell  you  in  the 
Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God  there  is  a  more  wonderful 
transformation.  Over  souls,  by  reason  of  sin  black- 
as  coal  and  hard  as  iron,  God  by  His  comforting 
grace  stoops  and  says:  "  They  shall  be  Mine  in  the 
day  when  I  make  up  My  jewels." 


THE   BEAUTY   OF   RELIGION.  331 

"  What,"  say  you,  "  will  God  wear  jewelry?"  If 
He  wanted  it  He  could  make  the  stars  of  heaven  His 
belt  and  have  the  evening  cloud  for  the  sandals  of 
His  feet ;  but  he  does  not  want  that  adornment.  He 
will  not  have  that  jewelry.  When  God  wants  jew- 
elry He  comes  down  and  digs  it  out  of  the  depths 
and  darkness  of  sin.  These  souls  are  all  crystaliza- 
tions  of  mercy.  He  puts  them  on  and  He  wears 
them  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  universe.  He 
wears  them  on  the  hand  that  was  nailed,  over  the 
heart  that  was  pierced,  on  the  temples  that  were 
stung.  "  They  shall  be  mine,"  saith  the  Lord,  "  in 
the  day  when  I  make  up  my  jewels."  Wonderful 
transformation  !  The  carbon  becomes  a  solitaire ! 

Now,  I  have  no  liking  for  those  people  who  are 
always  enlarging  in  Christian  meetings  about  their 
early  dissipation.  Do  not  go  into  the  particulars, 
my  brothers.  Simply  say  you  were  sick,  but  make 
no  display  of  your  ulcers.  The  chief  stock  in  trade 
of  some  ministers  and  Christian  workers  seems  to 
be  their  early  crimes  and  dissipations.  The  num- 
ber of  pockets  you  picked  and  the  number  of 
chickens  you  stole  make  very  poor  prayer-meeting 
rhetoric.  Besides  that,  it  discourages  other  Christian 
people  who  never  got  drunk  or  stole  anything.  But 
it  is  pleasant  to  know  that  those  who  were  farthest 
down  have  been  brought  highest  up.  Out  of  infernal 
serfdom  into  eternal  liberty.  Out  of  darkness  into 
light.  From  coal  to  the  solitaire.  "  The  crystal  can 
not  equal  it." 

But,  my  friends,  the  chief  transforming  power  of 
the  Gospel  will  not  be  seen  in  this  world  and  not 
until  heaven  breaks  upon  the  soul.  When  that  light 
falls  upon  the  soul  then  you  will  see  the  crystals. 


332  THE  BEAUTY   OF   RELIGION. 

Oh,  what  a  magnificent  setting  for  these  jewels  of 
eternity  ! 

"Oh,"  says  some  one,  putting  his  hand  over  his 
eyes,  "can  it  be  that  I  who  have  been  in  so  much  sin 
and  trouble  will  ever  come  to  those  crystals  ?4" 

Yes,  it  may  be — it  will  be.  Heaven  we  must  have, 
whatever  else  we  have  or  have  not,  and  we  have 
come  here  to  get  it.  "  How  much  must  I  pay  for 
it?"  you  say.  You  will  pay  for  it  just  as  much  as 
the  coal  pays  to  become  the  diamond.  In  other 
words,  nothing.  The  same  Almighty  power  that 
makes  the  crystal  in  the  mountain  will  change  your 
heart,  which  is  harder  than  stone,  for  the  promise  is, 
"  I  will  take  away  your  stony  heart,  and  I  will  give 
you  a  heart  of  flesh." 

"Oh,"  says  some  one,  "it  is  just  the  doctrine  I 
want ;  God  is  to  do  everything  and  I  am  to  do 
nothing."  My  brother,  it  is  not  the  doctrine  you 
want.  The  coal  makes  no  resistance.  It  hears  the 
resurrection  voice  in  the  mountain,  and  it  comes  to 
crystalization,  but  your  heart  resists.  The  trouble 
with  you,  my  brother,  is,  the  coal  wants  to  stay  coal. 
I  do  not  ask  you  to  throw  open  the  door  and  let 
Christ  in.  I  only  ask  that  you  stop  bolting  it  and 
barring  it. 

O  my  brother,  you  must  either  kill  sin  or  sin  will 
krll  you.  It  is  no  wild  exaggeration  when  I  say  that 
any  man  or  woman  that  wants  to  be  saved  may  be 
saved.  Tremendous  choice.  A  thousand  people  are 
choosing  this  moment  between  salvation  and  destruc- 
tion, between  light  and  darkness,  between  heaven 
and  hell,  between  charred  ruin  and  glorious  crys- 
talization. 


THE  ALHAMBRA. 

[The  Court  of  Lions.] 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

RELIGION   AN   ANTISEPTIC. 

Grace  is  like  salt  in  its  beauty.  In  Galicia,  among 
the  mines  of  salt,  there  are  two  hundred  and  eighty 
miles  of  underground  passages.  Down  in  those  salt 
mines  there  are  chapels,  and  cathedrals,  and  theaters, 
and  halls  of  reception,  and  the  altars  are  of  crystal, 
and  the  columns  are  of  crystal,  and  the  ceiling  is  of 
crystal.  When  the  emperor  comes  and  the  princes, 
all  this  is  lighted  up  with  torches,  and  the  scene  is 
indescribable  for  beauty,  as  the  emperor  and  the 
mighty  men  of  his  realm  walk  through,  and  some 
of  them  worship  in  the  chancels,  and  others  are 
entertained  in  the  theaters,  and  all  the  floor,  all  the 
pillars,  all  the  ceilings  are  of  crystal.  But  why 
should  I  go  so  far  to  tell  you  of  the  beauty  of  salt 
when  you  can  take  a  morning  train  and  go  to  the 
salt  mines  in  a  few  hours  ?  You  have  it  three  times 
a  day  upon  your  table. 

It  is  beautiful  to  the  naked  eye,  but  put  under  the 
microscope,  you  see  the  stars,  and  the  splinters,  and 
the  shafts,  and  the  bridges  of  fire  glint  of  the  sun. 
Salt  has  all  the  beauty  of  water  foam  and  snowflake, 
with  durability  added.  No  human  skill  hath  ever 
put  in  Alhambra  or  St.  Peter's  such  marvelous 
beauty  as  God  hath  put  in  one  crystal  of  salt. 
An  angel  would  need  to  take  all  of  time  with  an 
infringement  upon  eternity,  to  sketch  the  beauty 

335 


336  RELIGION   AN   ANTISEPTIC. 

of  that  which  you  sometimes  cast  aside  as  of  no 
importance. 

So  I  have  to  tell  you  that  the  grace  of  God  is 
beautiful  and  beautifying.  Have  you  never  seen  a 
life  illumined  by  it?  Have  you  never  seen  a  soul 
comforted  by  it  ?  Have  you  never  seen  a  character 
grandly  constructed  through  it?  I  have  seen  it 
smooth  the  wrinkles  of  care  from  the  brow.  I  have 
seen  it  seemingly  change  the  aged  into  the  young.  I 
have  seen  it  lift  the  stooped  shoulder  and  put  sparkle 
into  the  dull  eye.  It  is  beautifying  in  its  results.  It 
is  grand  and  glorious  in  its  influence.  Solomon 
described  its  anatomical  effect  when  he  said :  "  It  is 
marrow  to  the  bones." 

Of  course,  I  refer  now  to  a  healthy  religion,  not 
that  kind  which  sits  for  three  hours  on  a  gravestone 
reading  Hervey's  "  Meditations  among  the  Tombs  " 
— a  kind  of  religion  which  always  thrives  best  in  a 
bad  state  of  the  liver ;  but  a  religion  such  as  Christ 
preached,  the  healthiest  thing  in  all  the  earth,  good 
for  the  body  as  well  as  good  for  the  soul,  for  it  calms 
the  pulses  and  it  soothes  the  nerves,  and  it  quiets  the 
spleen,  and  it  is  a  physical  reinvigoration.  Many  a 
man  has  felt  it.  I  suppose  when  the  grace  of  God 
has  triumphed  in  all  the  earth  disease  will  be  ban- 
ished, and  that  a  man  one  hundred  years  of  age  will 
come  into  the  house,  and  say :  "  I  am  very  tired,  and 
it  is  time  for  me  to  go,"  and  without  one  phgsical 
pang  heaven  will  have  him. 

When  I  was  living  in  Philadelphia  there  was  an 
aged  bank  president ;  he  was  somewhere  in  the 
nineties.  At  the  close  of  the  business  of  the  day,  he 
came  home,  lay  down  on  the  sofa,  and  said  to  his 
daughter :  "  My  time  has  come,  and  I  must  go  away 


RELIGION   AN   ANTISEPTIC.  337 

from  you."  "  Why,"  she  said,  "  father,  are  you  sick? 
shall  I  send  for  a  doctor?"  "Oh,  no,"  he  replied, 
"  I  am  not  sick,  but  the  time  has  come  for  me  to  go. 
You  have  it  put  in  the  morning  papers  about  my 
death,  so  that  they  will  not  expect  me  in  business 
circles."  And  instantly  he  ceased  to  breathe.  That 
was  beautiful — that  was  a  glorious  transition  from  the 
world.  And  the  time  will  come  when  men  will  leave 
the  world  without  a  pang, 

The  grace  of  God  is  going  to  do  just  as  much  for 
the  bodies  of  men  as  it  does  for  the  souls  of  men. 
But  I  think  the  power  of  religion  is  chiefly  seen  in 
the  soul.  It  takes  that  which  is  hard  and  cold  and 
repulsive  and  casts  it  out.  It  makes  a  man  all  over 
again.  It  takes  his  pride  and  his  selfishness  and  his 
worldliness  and  chains  them — chains  them  fast  so 
that  they  can  move  around  with  very  small  sweep- 
for  they  are  chained. 

Go  all  through  the  underground  falls  of  Weilitzka 
and  through  the  underground  kingdoms  of  Holstadt 
and  show  me  anything  so  beautiful,  so  grandlv 
beautiful,  as  this  eternal  crystal.  It  throws  a  beauty 
over  the  heart,  and  a  beauty  over  the  life.  Christ 
comes  into  the  soul  and  casts  on  it  the  glow  of  a 
summer  garden,  as  he  says:  "I  am  the  rose  of 
Sharon  and  the  lily  of  the  valley."  And  then  He 
comes  and  throws  all  over  the  life  and  the  heart  the 
beauty  of  a  spring  morning,  as  He  cries  out:  "  I  am 
the  light  of  the  world."  Oh,  is  there  in  all  the  earth, 
is  there  in  all  the  heavens  anything  so  beautiful  as 
the  grace  of  God  ? 

Grace  is  like  salt  in  the  fact  that  it  is  a  necessity 
of  life.  Beasts  and  men  die  without  it.  What  are 
those  paths  across  the  Western  prairie  ?  They  have 


338  RELIGION   AN   ANTISEPTIC. 

been  made  by  the  deer  and  buffalo  coming  to  and 
going  from  the  salt  licks.  All  chemists,  all  physiolo- 
gists, all  physicians  will  tell  you  that  salt  is  an  abso- 
lute necessity  for  physical  health  and  life.  "  Without 
it  we  soon  die.  And  I  came  to  understand  Mso  that 
this  grace  of  God  is  an  absolute  necessity.  I  hear 
people  talk  of  it  as  though  this  religion  were  a  mere 
adornment,  a  shoulder-strap  decorating  a  soldier,  a 
frothy,  light  dessert  after  the  chief  banquet  has 
passed,  something  to  be  tried  after  calomels  and  mus- 
tard plasters  have  failed,  but  in  ordinary  circum- 
stances of  no  especial  importance — only  the  jingling 
of  the  bells  on  -the  horse's  neck  while  he  draws  the 
load,  but  in  no  way  helping  him  to  draw  it.  Now  I 
denounce  that  style  of  religion.  Religion,  while  it 
is  an  adornment,  is  the  first  and  the  last  necessity  of 
an  immortal  nature.  I  must  have  it,  you  must  have 
it,  or  we  cannot  live. 

You  know  how  a  man  would  soon  perish  if  he  took 
no  salt  with  his  food.  The  energies  would  flag,  the 
lungs  would  struggle  with  the  air,  slow  fevers  would 
crawl  through  the  brain,  the  heart  would  flutter,  and 
the  life  would  be  gone.  And  that  is  what  is  the  mat- 
ter with  a  great  many  people  who  are  dying  in  their 
souls.  They  take  none  of  this  salt  of  divine  grace. 
They  have  never  tried  it.  They  do  not  want  it. 
Weaker  and  weaker  will  they  get  in  the  spiritual  life, 
until  after  a  while  they  will  be  stretched  out  on  the 
bier  of  death.  Coffin  him  in  a  groan.  Hearse  him  in 
a  sigh.  Throw  a  wreath  of  nightshade  on  the  casket. 
Kindle  no  lamp  at  the  head  or  the  foot,  but  rather 
set  up  the  expired  torches  of  the  foolish  virgins 
whose  lamps  went  out.  Salt  an  absolute  necessity 
for  the  life  of  the  body ;  the  grace  of  God  an  absolute 


RELIGION   AN   ANTISEPTIC.  339 

necessity  for  the  life  of  the  soul.  Oh,  that  it  might 
thunder  in  our  ears  to-day,  "  Except  ye  be  born  again 
ye  cannot,  ye  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 

We  have  got  to  have  more  faith  in  this  Gospel,  in 
its  power  to  save  all  classes  of  people,  not  only  those 
high  up,  but  those  low  down,  not  only  the  wise,  but 
the  ignorant — all  classes.  It  is  going  to  regenerate 
society.  While  we  sit  in  holy  places  to-day,  how 
many  thousands  there  are  who  have  no  Sabbath. 
They  pass  down  these  streets.  They  know  not  it  is 
the  Sabbath,  except  that  it  gives  them  more  oppor- 
tunity for  dissipation  and  wicked  hilarity,  and  more 
time  for  sin.  They  have  got  to  be  brought  under  the 
power  of  this  Gospel.  It  is  an  abundant  Gospel.  The 
Christ  that  saved  you  will  save  them. 

"Oh,"  says  some  one  out  there,  "if  I  am  to  be  saved 
I  will  be  saved,  and  if  I  am  to  be  lost  I  will  be  lost." 
You  misrepresent  the  Gospel,  my  brother.  Do  not 
say  that.  There  is  something  for  you  to  do.  Strive 
to  enter  in  at  the  straight  gate.  Take  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  by  violence. 

This  grace  is  also  like  salt  in  its  preservative  qual- 
ity. 

You  know  that  salt  absorbs  the  moisture  of  food, 
and  so  food  is  preserved.  Salt  is  the  great  anti-putre- 
factive of  the  world.  Everybody  knows  that.  Ex- 
perimenters in  the  preservation  of  food  have  tried 
sugar  and  smoke  and  air-tight  jars,  and  everything; 
but  as  long  as  the  world  stands  Christ's  remark  will 
be  suggestive  :  "  Salt  is  good."  And  this  grace  of 
God  is  to  be  the  preservative  of  laws,  of  constitutions, 
of  government.  Why  is  it  that  the  United  States 
Government  and  the  British  Government  have  stood 
so  long?  While  there  h-as  been  corruption  often  in 


340  REI.IC1ION   AN   ANTISKPTIC. 

high  places,  there  have  been  good  men  always  in  the 
front.  Take  the  grace  of  God  away  from  a  nation, 
and  you  work  its  destruction.  It  cannot  live  with- 
out it. 

So  a  great  deal  of  modern  philosophy.  What  is 
the  matter  with  it  ?  The  grace  of  God  has  gone  out 
of  it,  and  it  putrefies  and  rots.  What  our  schools  of 
learning,  what  our  institutions  of  science  want  now 
is  not  more  Leyden  jars,  more  galvanic  batteries, 
more  spectroscopes,  more  philosophic  apparatus. 
Oh,  no.  What  is  most  wanted  is  the  grace  of  God 
to  teach  our  men  of  learning  that  the  God  of  the 
universe  is  the  God  of  the  Bible.  Is  it  not  strange 
that  with  all  their  magnificent  sweeps  of  the  tele- 
scopes they  have  never  seen  the  morning  star  of 
Jesus?  or  having  been  so  long  studying  about  light 
and  heat,  they  have  never  seen  and  felt  the  light  and 
heat  of  the  sun  of  righteousness  that  has  risen  on  the 
world  with  healing  in  His  wings?  O  mv  friends,  the 
Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God  is  the  only  anti-putrefac- 
tive among  the  nations.  Take  that  away,  you  take 
their  life  away.  Everything  on  earth  is  tending  to 
decay  and  death.  This  is  the  preserving  quality. 
"  Salt  is  good." 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

THE  SPICERY  OF  RELIGION. 

All  theologians  agree  in  making  Solomon  a  type 
of  Christ,  and  in  making  the  Queen  of  Sheba  a  type 
of  every  truth-seeker ;  and  I  shall  take  the  responsi- 
bility of  saying  that  all  the  spikenard,  and  cassia,  and 
frankincense  which  the  Queen  of  Sheba  brought  to 
King  Solomon  is  mightily  suggestive  of  the  sweet  spi- 
ces of  our  holy  religion.  Christianity  is  not  a  collection 
of  sharp  technicalities,  and  angular  facts,  and  chro- 
nological tables,  and  dry  statistics.  Our  religion  is 
compared  to  frankincense  and  to  cassia,  but  never  to 
nightshade.  It  is  a  bundle  of  myrrh.  It  is  a  dash  of 
holy  light.  It  is  a  sparkle  of  cool  fountains.  It  is  an 
opening  of  opaline  gates.  It  is  a  collection  of  spices. 
Would  God  that  we  were  as  wise  in  taking  spices  to 
our  Divine  King  as  Queen  Balkis  was  wise  in  taking 
the  spices  to  the  earthly  Solomon. 

The  fact  is,  that  the  duties  and  cares  of  this  life, 
coming  to  us  from  time  to  time,  are  stupid  often,  and 
inane,  and  intolerable.  Here  are  men  who  have  been 
battering,  climbing,  pounding,  hammering  for  twenty 
years,  forty  years,  fifty  years.  One  great,  long 
drudgery  has  their  life  been.  Their  faces  anxious, 
their  feelings  benumbed,  their  days  monotonous. 
What  is  necessary  to  brighten  up  that  man's  life,  and 
to  sweeten  that  acid  disposition,  and  to  put  sparkle 
into  the  man's  spirits?  The  spicery  of  our  holy  re- 

341 


342  THE    SPICERY    OF    RELIGION. 

ligion.  Why,  if  between  the  losses  of  life  there 
dashed  a  gleam  of  an  eternal  gain;  if  between  the 
betrayals  of  life  there  came  the  gleam  of  the  undying 
friendship  of  Christ;  if  in  dull  times  in  business  we 
found  ministering  spirits  flying  to  and  fro  in  our 
office,  and  store,  and  shop,  everyday  life,  instead  of 
being  a  stupid  monotone,  would  be  a  glorious  inspi- 
ration, pcnduluming  between  calm  satisfaction  and 
high  rapture. 

How  any  woman  keeps  house  without  the  religion 
of  Christ  to  help  her,  is  a  mystery  to  me.  To  have 
to  spend  the  greater  part  of  one's  life,  as  many 
women  do,  in  planning  for  the  meals,  and  stitching 
garments  that  will  soon  be  rent  again,  and  deploring 
breakages,  and  supervising  tardy  subordinates,  and 
driving  off  dust  that  soon  again  will  settle,  and  doing 
the  same  thing  day  in  and  day  out,  and  year  in  and 
year  out,  until  the  hair  silvers,  and  the  back  stoops, 
and  the  spectacles  crawl  to  the  eyes,  and  the  grave 
breaks  open  under  the  thin  sole  of  the  shoe — oh,  it  is 
a  long  monotony !  But  when  Christ  comes  to  the 
drawing-room,  and  comes  to  the  kitchen,  and  comes 
to  the  nursery,  and  comes  to  the  dwelling,  then  how 
cheery  become  all  womanly  duties.  She  is  never 
alone  now.  Martha  gets  through  fretting  and  joins 
Mary  at  the  feet  of  Jesus.  All  day  long  Deborah  is 
happy  because  she  can  help  Lapidoth  ;  Hannah,  be- 
cause she  can  make  a  coat  for  young  Samuel ;  Miriam, 
because  she  can  watch  her  infant  brother  ;  Rachel, 
because  she  can  help  her  father  water  the  stock  ;  the 
widow  of  Sarepta  because  the  cruse  oil  is  being  re- 
plenished. 

O,  woman,  having  in  your  pantry  a  nest  of  boxes 
containing  all  kinds  of  condiments,  why  have  you  not 


THE   SPICERY   OF   RELIGION.  343 

tried  in  your  heart  and  life  the  spicery  of  our  holy 
religion  ?  "  Martha !  Martha !  thou  art  careful  and 
troubled  about  many  things ;  but  one  thing  is  need- 
ful, and  Mary  hath  chosen  that  good  part  which  shall 
not  be  taken  away  from  her." 

I  must  confess  that  a  great  deal  of  the  religion  of 
this  day  is  utterly  insipid.  There  is  nothing  piquant 
or  elevating  about  it.  Men  and  women  go  around 
humming  psalms  in  a  minor  key,  and  culturing 
melancholy,  and  their  worship  has  in  it  more  sighs 
than  raptures.  We  do  not  doubt  their  piety.  Oh, 
no.  But  they  are  sitting  at  a  feast  where  the  cook 
has  forgotten  to  season  the  food.  Everything  is  flat 
in  their  experience  and  in  their  conversation.  Emanci- 
pated from  sin,  and  death,  and  hell,  and  on  their  way 
to  a  magnificent  heaven,  they  act  as  though  they 
were  trudging  on  toward  an  everlasting  Botany  Bay. 
Religion  does  not  seem  to  agree  with  them.  It  seems 
to  catch  in  the  windpipe,  and  become  a  strangula- 
tion instead  of  an  exhilaration. 

All  the  infidel  books  that  have  been  written,  from 
Voltaire  down  to  Herbert  Spencer,  have  not  done  so 
much  damage  to  our  Christianity  as  lugubrious 
Christians.  Who  \vants  a  religion  woven  out  of  the 
shadows  of  the  night?  Why  go  growling  on  your 
way  to.  celestial  enthronement?  Come  out  of  that 
cave,  and  sit  down  in  the  warm  light  of  the  Son  of 
Righteousness.  Away  with  your  odes  to  melancholy 
and  Hervey's  "  Meditations  among  the  Tombs." 

"  Then  let  our  songs  abound, 

And  every  tear  be  dry ; 

We're  marching  through  Emmanuel's  ground 
To  fairer  worlds  on  high." 

I  have  to  say  also,  that  we  need  to  put  more  spice 
and  enlivenment  in  our  religious  teachings;  whether  it 


344  THE   SPICERV   OF   RELIGION. 

be  in  the  prayer-meeting,  or  in  the  Sabbath-school, 
or  in  the  Church.  We  ministers  need  more  fresh 
air  and  sunshine  in  our  lungs,  and  our  hearts,  and  our 
heads.  Do  you  wonder  that  the  world  is  so  far  from 
being  converted  when  you  find  so  little  vivacity  in 
the  pulpit  and  in  the  pew  ?  We  want,  like  the  Lord, 
to  plant  in  our  sermons  and  exhortations  more  lilies 
of  the  field.  We  want  few  rhetorical  elaborations, 
and  fewer  sesquipedalian  words;  and  when  we  talk 
about  shadows,  we  do  not  want  to  say  adumbration  ; 
and  when  we  mean  queerness,  we  do  not  want  to  talk 
about  idiosyncrasies;  or  if  a  stitch  in  the  back,  we  do 
not  want  to  talk  about  lumbago ;  but,  in  the  plain  ver- 
nacular of  the  great  masses,  preach  that  Gospel  which 
proposes  to  make  all  men  happy,  honest,  victorious, 
and  free.  In  other  words,  we  want  more  cinnamon 
and  less  gristle.  Let  this  be  so  in  all  the  different 
departments  of  work  to  which  the  Lord  calls  us. 
Let  us  be  plain.  Let  us  be  earnest.  Let  us  be  com- 
mon-sensical.  When  we  talk  to  the  people  in  a  ver- 
nacular they  can  understand,  they  will  be  very  glad 
to  come  and  receive  the  truth  we  present.  Would 
to  God  that  Queen  Balkis  would  drive  her  spice- 
laden  dromedaries  into  all  our  sermons  and  prayer- 
meeting  exhortations. 

More  than  that,  we  want  more  life  and  spice  in  our 
Christian  work.  The  poor  do  not  want  so  much  to 
be  groaned  over  as  sung  to.  With  the  bread  and 
medicines,  and  the  garments  you  give  them,  let  there 
be  an  accompaniment  of  smiles  and  brisk  encourage- 
ment. Do  not  stand  and  talk  to  them  about  the 
wretchedness  of  their  abode,  and  the  hunger  of  their 
looks,  and  the  hardness  of  their  lot.  Ah  !  they  know 
it  better  than  you  can  tell  them.  Show  them  the 


THE   SPICERY   OF   RELIGION.  345 

bright  side  of  the  thing,  if  there  be  any  bright  side. 
Tell  them  good  times  will  come.  Tell  them  that  for 
the  children  of  God  there  is  immortal  rescue.  Wake 
them  up  out  of  their  stolidity  by  an  inspiring  laugh, 
and  while  you  send  in  practical  help,  like  the  Queen 
of  Sheba  also  send  in  the  spices. 

There  are  two  ways  of  meeting  the  poor.  One  is 
to  come  into  their  house  with  a1  nose  elevated  in  dis- 
gust, as  much  as  to  say :  "I  dont't  see  how  you  live 
here  in  this  .neighborhood.  It  actually  makes  me 
sick.  There  is  that  bundle — take  it,  you  poor  miser- 
able wretch,  and  make  the  most  of  it."  Another 
way  is  to  go  into  the  abode  of  the  poor  in  a  manner 
which  seems  to  say  :  "The  blessed  Lord  sent  me. 
He  was  poor  himself.  It  is  not  more  for  the  good 
I  am  going  to  try  to  do  you  than  it  is  for  the  good 
you  can  do  me."  Coming  in  that  spirit,  the  gift  will 
be  as  aromatic  as  the  spikenard  on  the  feet  of  Christ, 
and  all  the  hovels  on  that  alley  will  be  fragrant  with 
the  spice. 

We  need  more  spice  and  enlivenment  in  our  church- 
music.  Churches  sit  discussing  whether  they  shall 
have  choirs,  or  precentors,  or  organs,  or  bass-viols, 
or  cornets  ;  I  say,  take  that  which  will  bring  out  the 
most  inspiring  music.  If  we  had  half  as  much  zeal 
and  spirit  in  our  churches  as  we  have  in  the  songs  of 
our  Sabbath-schools,  it  would  not  be  long  before  the 
whole  earth  would  quake  with  the  coming  God. 
Why,  nine-tenths  of  the  people  in  church  do  not  sing  ; 
or  they  sing  so  feebly  that  the  people  at  their  elbows 
do  not  know  they  are  singing.  People  mouth  and 
mumble  the  praises  of  God:  but  there  is  not  more 
than  one  out  of  a  hundred  who  makes  a  joyful  noise 
unto  the  Rock  of  our  Salvation.  Sometimes,  when 


TIIK   SI'ICERY    OF    KKLIGION. 

the  congregation  forgets  itself,  and  is  all  absorbed  in 
the  goodness  of  God,  or  the  glories  of  heaven,  I  get 
an  intimation  of  what  church-music  will  be  a  hun- 
dred years  from  now,  when  the  coming  generation 
shall  wake  up  to  its  duty. 

Soft  music,  long-drawn-out  music,  is  appropriate 
for  the  drawing-room,  and  appropriate  for  the  con- 
cert ;  but  St.  John  gives  an  idea  of  the  sonorous  and 
resonant  congregational  singing  appropriate  for 
churches  when,  in  listening  to  the  temple  service  of 
heaven,  he  says  :  "I  heard  a  great  voice,  as  the  voice 
of  a  great  multitude,  and  as  the  voice  of  many  waters, 
and  as  the  voice  of  mighty  thunderings.  Hallelujah, 
for  the  Lord  God  omnipotent  reigneth." 

Join  with  me  in  a  crusade,  giving  me  not  only  your 
hearts,  but  the  mighty  uplifting  of  your  voices,  and 
I  believe  we  can,  through  Christ's  grace,  sing  five 
thousand  souls  into  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  An 
argument,  they  can  laugh  at ;  a  sermon,  they  may 
talk  down  ;  but  a  five-thousand  voiced  utterance  of 
praise  to  God  is  irresistible.  Would  that  Queen 
Balkis  would  drive  all  her  spice-laden  dromedaries 
into  our  church-music. 

Religion  is  sweetness,  and  perfume,  and  spikenard, 
and  saffron,  and  cinnamon,  and  cassia  and  frankin- 
cense, and  all  sweet  spices  together.  "  Oh,"  you 
say,  "  I  have  not  looked  at  it  as  such.  I  thought 
it  was  a  nuisance  ;  it  had  for  me  a  repulsion  ;  I 
held  my  breath  as  though  it  were  a  mal  odor;  I 
have  been  appalled  at  its  advance  ;  I  have  said,  if 
I  have  any  religion  at  all,  I  want  to  have  just  as  lit- 
tle of  it  as  is  possible  to  get  through  with  it." 

Oh,  what  a  mistake  you  have  made,  my  brother. 
The  religion  of  Christ  is  a  present  and  everlasting 


THE   SPICERY   OF   RELIGION.  347 

redolence.  It  counteracts  all  trouble.  Just  put  it  on 
the  stand  beside  the  pillow  of  sickness.  It  catches 
in  the  curtains,  and  perfumes  the  stifling  air.  It 
sweetens  the  cup  of  bitter  medicine,  and  throws  a 
glow  on  the  gloom  of  the  turned  lattice.  It  is  a 
balm  for  the  aching  side,  and  a  soft  bandage  for  the 
temple  stung  with  pain.  It  lifted  Samuel  Rutherford 
into  a  revelry  of  spiritual  delight,  while  he  was  in 
physical  agonies.  It  helped  Richard  Baxter  until,  in 
the  midst  of  such  a  complication  of  diseases  as  per- 
haps no  other  man  ever  suffered,  he  wrote  "The  Saint's 
Everlasting  Rest."  And  it  poured  light  upon  John 
Bunyan's  dungeon — the  light  of  the  shining  gate  of 
the  shining  city.  And  it  is  good  for  rheumatism,  and 
for  neuralgia,  and  for  low  spirits,  and  for  consump- 
tion ;  it  is  the  catholicon  for  all  disorders.  Yes,  it  will 
heal  all  your  sorrows. 

A  widowed  mother,  with  her  little  child,  went 
West,  hoping  to  get  better  wages  there  ;  and  she  was 
taken  sick,  and  died.  The  overseer  of  the  poor  got 
her  body  and  put  it  in  a  box,  and  put  it  in  a  wagon, 
and  started  down  the  street  toward  the  cemeterv  at 

^ 

full  trot.  The  little  child — the  only  child — ran  after 
it  through  the  streets,  bare-headed,  crying;  "Bring 
me  back  my  mother !  bring  me  back  my  mother !" 
And  it  was  said  that  as  the  people  looked  on  and  saw 
her  crying  after  that  which  lay  in  the  box  in  the 
wagon — all  she  loved  on  earth — it  is  said  the  whole 
village  was  bathed  in  tears. 

And  that  is  what  a  great  many  of  you  are  doing — 
chasing  the  dead.  Dear  Lord,  is  there  no  appease- 
ment for  all  this  sorrow  that  I  see  about  me  ?  Yes, 
the  thought  of  resurrection  and  reunion  far  beyond 
this  scene  of  struggle  and  tears.  "  They  shall  hunger 


34$  THE   SPICEKY    OF   RELIGION. 

no  more,  neither  thirst  any  more,  neither  shall  the 
sun  light  on  them,  nor  any  heat;  for  the  Lamb  which 
is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  shall  lead  them  to  living 
fountains  of  water,  and  God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears 
from  their  eyes."  Across  the  couches  of  your  sick, 
and  across  the  graves  of  your  dead,  1  fling  this, 
shower  of  sweet  spices.  Queen  Balkis,  driving  up 
to  the  pillared  portico  of  the  house  of  cedar,  carried 
no  such  pungency  of  perfume  as  exhales  to-day  from 
the  Lord's  garden.  It  is  peace.  It  is  sweetness.  It 
is  comfort.  It  is  irifinite  satisfaction,  this  Gospel  I 
commend  to  you. 

Some  one  could  not  understand  why  an  old  Ger- 
man Christian  scholar  used  to  be  always  so  calm,  and 
happy,  and  hopeful,  when  he  had  so  many  trials,  and 
sicknesses,  and  ailments.  A  man  secreted  himself  in 
the  house.  He  said:  "I  mean  to  watch  this  old 
scholar  and  Christian  ;  "  and  he  saw  the  old  Christian 
man  go  to  his  room  and  sit  down  on  the  chair  beside 
the  stand,  and  open  the  Bible  and  begin  to  read.  He 
read  on  and  on,  chapter  after  chapter,  hour  after 
hour,  until  his  face  was  all  aglow  with  the  tidings 
from  heaven,  and  when  the  clock  struck  twelve,  he 
arose  and  shut  his  Bible,  and  said  :  "Blessed  Lord, 
\ve  are  on  the  same  old  terms  yet.  Good-night. 
Good-night."  Oh,  you  sin-parched  and  you  trouble- 
pounded,  here  is  comfort,  here  is  satisfaction.  Will 
you  come  and  get  it?  I  can  not  tell  you  what  the 
Lord  offers  you  hereafter  so  well  as  I  can  tell  you 
now.  "It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be." 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

LIVE  CHURCHES. 

A  live  church  is  prompt  in  all  its  financial  engage- 
ments. Every  religious  institution  has  monetary  re- 
lations. The  Bank  of  England  ought  to  be  no  more 
faithful  in  the  discharge  of  its  obligations  than  ought 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ.  If  a  church  standing  in 
any  community  fails  to  pay  its  debts,  it  becomes  an 
injury  to  the  place  where  it  stands,  instead  of  a  bless- 
ing. All  religious  institutions  ought  to  be  an  example 
to  the  world  for  faithfulness  in  the  discharge  of 
monetary  obligations.  There  are  a  thousand  things 
that  prayer  will  not  do.  Prayer  will  not  paint  a 
church,  prayer  will  not  purchase  a  winter's  coal, 
prayer  will  not  pay  an  insurance,  prayer  will  not  sup- 
port the  institutions  of  religion.  A  prayer  never 
goes  heaven  high  unless  it  goes  pocket  deep.  All 
our  supplication  in  behalf  of  religious  institutions 
amounts  to  nothing,  unless  we  are  willing,  so  far  as 
God  has  prospered  us,  to  contribute  for  their  sup- 
port. 

I  might  at  this  point  say  that  there  are  many 
churches  of  Jesus  Christ  in  our  land  that  are  utterly 
failing  in  this  direction.  There  are  a  great  many  of 
the  ministers  of  religion  half  starved  to  death. 
"  Thank  you,"  said  a  minister  from  the  far  West, 
when  some  friends  from  the  East  sent  him  a  few 
extra  dollars;  "thank  you  sir."  Until  that  money 

349 


350  LIVE  CHURCHES. 

came  we  had  no  meat  in  our  house  for  three  months, 
and  our  children  this  winter  have  worn  their  summer 
clothes."  There  is  no  more  ghastly  suffering  in  the 
United  States  to-day  than  is  to  be  found  in  some  of 
the  parsonages  of  this  country.  I  denounce  the  nig- 
gardliness of  many  of  the  churches  of  Jesus  Christ, 
keeping  some  men  who  are  very  apostles  for  piety 
and  consecration,  in  circumstances  where  they  are 
always  apologetic,  and  have  not  that  courage  which 
they  would  have  could  they  stand  in  the  presence  of 
people  whom  they  knew  were  faithful  in  the  dis- 
charge of  their  financial  duties  to  the  Christian 
Church.  Alas  !  for  those  men  of  whom  the  world  is 
not  worthy.  Do  you  know  the  simple  fact  that  in 
the  United  States  to-day  the  salary  of  ministers  aver- 
ages less  than  six  hundred  dollars,  and  when  you  con- 
sider that  some  of  the  salaries  are  very  large,  you,  as 
business  men,  will  immediately  see  to  what  great 
straits  many  of  God's  noblest  servants  are  this  day 
reduced.  A  live  church  will  look  after  all  its  finan- 
cial interests,  and  be  as  prompt  in  the  meeting  of  those 
obligations  as  any  bank  in  all  the  cities. 

A  live  church  will  be  punctual  in  its  attendance. 
If  in  such  a  church  the  services  begin  at  half-past  ten 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  people  will  not  come  at  a 
quarter  of  eleven.  If  in  such  a  church  the  services 
begin  at  half-past  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening,  the 
people  will  not  come  at  a  quarter  of  eight.  In  many 
churches  there  is  great  tardiness.  The  fact  is,  some 
people  are  always  late.  They  were  born  too  late, 
and  I  suppose  they  will  die  too  late.  It  is  poor  in- 
spiration to  a  Christian  minister,  when  in  preliminary 
exercises,  half  the  people  seated  in  their  pews  are 
looking  around  to  see  the  other  half  come  in.  It  is 


LIVE   CHURCHES.  351 

very  confusing  to  a  minister  of  religion  when,  during 
the  opening  exercises,  there  is  the  rustling  of  dresses 
through  the  aisle,  and  the  slamming  of  doors  at  the 
entrance. 

There  ought  to  be  no  opening,  preliminary  exer- 
cises. There  is  a  grand  delusion  in  the  churches  of 
Jesus  Christ  on  this  subject.  There  must  be  no  pre- 
liminary exercises.  The  very  first  word  of  the  invo- 
cation is  as  important  as  anything  that  may  come 
after.  Scripture  lesson,  the  voice  of  God  to  man, 
while  a  sermon  may  be  only  the  voice  of  man  to  man. 
And  happy  is  that  church  where  all  the  worshipers 
are  present  at  the  beginning  of  the  services.  I  know 
there  is  a  difference  in  timepieces,  but  a  live  church 
goes  by  railroad  time,  and  everybody  in  every  com- 
munity knows  what  that  is.  No  man  goes  to  take 
the  limited  express  train  to  Washington  at  five  min- 
utes past  ten  o'clock  if  the  train  started  at  ten.  In 
many  of  the  households  of  Christendom,  every  Sab- 
bath morning  the  family  might  well  sing  that  old 
hymn : 

"  Early,  my  God,  without  delay, 
I  haste  to  seek  thy  face.'' 

Yes,  I  go  further,  and  tell  you  that  in  every  live 
church  all  the  people  take  part  in  the  exercises.  A 
stranger  can  tell  by  the  way  the  first  hymn  starts, 
whether  it  is  a  live  church.  It  is  a  sad  thing  when 
the  music  comes  down  in  a  cold  drizzle  from  the  or- 
gan loft,  and  freezes  on  the  heads  of  the  silent  people 
beneath.  It  is  an  awful  thing  fora  hymn  to  start  and 
then  find  itself  lonely  and  unbefriended,  wandering 
around  about,  after  a  while  lost  amid  the  arches. 
That  is  not  melody  to  the  Lord.  In  heaven  they  all 
sing,  although  some  sing  not  half  as  well  as  others. 


352  LIVE   CHURCHES. 

The  Methodist  Church  has  sung  its  way  around  the 
earth.  A  man  on  fire  with  the  Gospel,  as  John  Wes- 
ley preached  it,  has  taken  his  place  in  the  far  West, 
and  on  Sabbath  morning  has  come  out  in  front  of  his 
log  cabin  and  sung  : 

"  A  charge  to  keep  I  have, 
A  God  to  glorify." 

And  they  heard  it  on  the  other  side  the  forest,  and 
they  gathered  around  the  doorstep,  and  after  a  while 
a  church  grew  up,  and  they  had  a  great  revival,  and 
all  the  wilderness  heard  the  voice  of  God.  A  church 
that  can  sing  can  do  anything  that  ought  to  be  done. 
In  this  great  battle  for  God  let  us  take  the  Bible  in 
one  hand  and  the  hymn  book  in  the  other,  on  the 
way  to  triumphs  without  end,  and  to  pleasures  that 
never  die.  Sing ! 

A  live  church  will  have  a  flourishing  Sabbath- 
school.  It  is  too  late  in  the  history  of  the  church  to 
argue  the  benefit  of  Sabbath-schools.  A  Sabbath- 
school  is  not  a  supplement  to  the  church ;  it  is 
its  right  arm.  "Oh,"  you  say,  "  there  are  stupid 
churches  that  have  Sabbath-schools."  Yes,  and  the 
Sabbath-schools  are  stupid,  too.  It  is  a  dead  mother 
holding  a  dead  child.  But  where  Sabbath  after  Sab- 
bath, a  superintendent,  and  teachers,  and  children 
come,  their  faces  aglow  with  enthusiasm,  entering 
with  great  heart  into  the  services,  and  then  retiring  at 
home  feeling  that  they  have  been  on  a  mount  of  trans- 
figuration— that  church  will  be  a  live  church. 

But  while  we  have  the  children  of  the  refined  and 
the  educated  and  the  cultured  in  our  churches,  I  de- 
plore the  fact  that  there  are  such  vast  multitudes  who 
get  none  of  the  benediction.  What  will  become  of 
the  70,000  destitute  children  in  New  York?  It  is  a 


LIVE   CHURCHES.  353 

tremendous  question.  What  will  become  of  the 
thousands  of  destitute  children  in  Brooklyn?  If  we 
do  not  act  upon  them  they  will  act  upon  us.  If  we 
do  not  Christianize  them  they  will  heathenize  us.  It 
is  a  question  not  more  for  every  Christian  than  for 
every  patriot,  and  every  philanthropist,  and  every 
statesman.  Oh,  if  we  could  gather  them  all  together, 
what  a  scene  of  hunger  and  wretchedness  and  des- 
pair and  death. 

If  you  could  see  those  little  feet  on  the  broad  road 
to  death,  which,  through  Christian  charity,  ought  to 
be  pressing  the  narrow  path  of  life  ;  if  you  could 
hear  those  voices  in  blasphemy,  which  ought  to  be 
singing  the  praises  of  God  ;  if  you  could  see  those 
hearts,  which  at  that  age  ought  not  to  be  soiled  with 
one  impure  thought,  already  become  the  sewers  of 
iniquity  ;  if  you  could  see  those  little  ones  sacrificed 
on  the  altar  of  every  iniquitous  passion,  and  baptized 
with  fire  from  the  lava  of  the  pit,  your  soul  would 
recoil,  crying:  "Avaunt,  thou  dream  of  hell." 

They  are  coming  up.  They  will  not  always  be 
boys  and  girls.  They  are  coming  up  into  the  men 
and  women  of  this  country.  That  spark  of  iniquity 
that  might  be  put  out  now  with  one  drop  of  the  water 
of  life,  will  become  a  conflagration,  destroying  every 
green  thing  that  God  ever  planted  in  the  soul.  That 
which  ought  to  be  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost  will 
become  a  scarred  and  blasted  ruin,  every  light 
quenched,  and  every  altar  in  the  dust.  That  petty 
thief  who  yesterday  slipped  into  your  store  and  took 
a  piece  of  cloth  from  the  counter,  will  become  the 
highway  man  of  the  forest,  or  the  burglar  at  midnight, 
picking  the  lock  of  your  money  safe  and  blowing  up 
your  store  to  hide  the  villainy. 


j?54  LIVE   CHURCHES. 

A  great  army,  they  come  on  with  staggering  step 
and  bloodshot  eye,  and  drunken  hoot  to  take  the  bal- 
lot box  and  hurrah  at  the  elections.  The  rough- 
handed  ruffianism  of  the  country,  if  we  do  not  look 
out,  will  after  a  while  have  more  power  than  the 
tender  hand  of  sobriety.  Men  bloated,  and  with  the 
signature  of  sin  burned  in  from  the  top  of  their  fore- 
heads to  the  bottom  of  their  chins,  will  look  honest 
men  out  of  countenance.  Moral  corpses,  that  ought 
to  be  buried  a  hundred  feet  deep  to  keep  them  from 
poisoning  the  air,  will  rot  in  the  face  of  the  sun  at 
noonday.  Industry  in  her  plain  frock  will  be  des- 
pised, and  thousands  of  men  unwilling  to  work  will 
wander  about  with  their  hands  on  their  hips,  saying : 
"The  world  owes  me  a  living,"  when  it  owes  them 
the  penitentiary,  Oh,  what  a  power  there  is  in  in- 
iquity when  unrestrained  and  unblanched.  It  goes 
on  concentring  and  deepening  and  widening,  rolling 
ahead  with  every  triumph  of  desolation,  drowning 
like  surges,  scorching  like  flames,  crushing  like  rocks. 

What  are  you  going  to  do  with  them — of  this  vast 
multitude  of  children  marching  up  to  take  posses- 
sion of  this  land?  "Oh,"  you  say,  "it's  only  a  child, 
it's  only  a  child."  Ah  !  that  child  has  covered  up  in 
the  ashes  of  its  body  a  spark  of  immortality  which 
will  blaze  on  with  untold  splendor  long  after  yonder 
sun  has  died  of  old  age,  and  all  the  countless  worlds 
that  glitter  at  night  shall  have  been  swept  off  by  the 
Almighty's  breath  as  the  small  dust  of  a  threshing 
floor.  Yet  you  say  it  is  only  a  child. 

A  live  church  will  have  commodious  and  appro- 
priate architecture.  A  log  church  may  do  in  a  place 
where  people  live  in  log  cabins,  but  in  cities  where 
people  have  commodious  and  beautiful  apartments  a 


LIVE   CHURCHES.  355 

chur.ch  that  is  not  commodious  and  is  not  beautiful, 
is  a  moral  nuisance;  it  is  an  insult  to  God  and  an  in- 
sult to  man. 

A  live  church  must  be  a  soul-saving  church.  The 
Gospel  ot  Jesus  Christ  must  be  preached  in  it.  A 
church  may  be  built  around  one  man  who  shall  read 
an  essay,  the  church  may  be  built  around  one  man 
who  shall  preach  something  else  than  the  Gospel,  and 
there  may  be  a  large  congregation  ;  but  after  a  while, 
the  man  dies,  and  the  church  dies.  That  church  has 
a  very  poor  foundation  that  is  built  on  two  human 
shoulders. 

I  could  te:'  you  of  a  church  in  the  city  of  Boston 
that  was  more  largely  attended  some  thirty  years  ago 
than  any  other  church  in  that  city.  Where  is  it  to- 
day ?  Utterly  gone  out  of  existence.  A  man  stood 
there  who  preached  everything  but  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ.  He  died,  and  the  church  died.  We 
want  a  church  built  on  the  Rock  of  Ages,  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Lord.  That  is  the  church  that  will  goon 
decade  after  decade,  century  after  century — a  church 
standing  like  Rowland  Hill's  old  church,  meaning  the 
Gospel  all  the  way  through.  I  was  at  the  celebra. 
tion  of,  I  think,  the  ninetieth  year  of  that  church. 
The  man  who  founded  it  had  long  ago  gone  into  the 
skies. 

"Oh,"  say  some,  "the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  allows 
such  small  opportunity  for  man's  intellect."  Does 
it?  A  man  of  that  kind  came  to  Rowland  Hill,  of 
whom  I  just  spoke,  and  said  :  "Mr.  Hill,  I  have  quit 
the  ministry  because  I  am  not  willing  to  hide  my 
talents."  Mr.  Hill  said  :  "I  have  known  you  a  long 
while,  my  friend,  and  I  think  the  sooner  you  hide 
your  talents  the  better."  Oh,  there  is  no  such  field 


356  LIVE  CHURCHES. 

for  a  man's  intellect  and  a  man's  heart  as  the  Gospe! 
ministry.  Have  you  powers  of  analysis?  Exhaust 
them  here.  Have  you  irresistible  logic  ?  Grapple 
with  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  Have  you 
powers  of  pathos?  Exhibit  the  love  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Have  you  great  imagination?  Dwell  upon  the  Psalms 
of  David,  or  John's  apocalyptic  vision.  Are  you  dis- 
posed to  bold  thinking?  Follow  Ezekiel's  wheel  full 
of  .eyes,  and  hear  through  his  chapters  the  rush  of 
the  wings  of  the  seraphim.  Oh,  come  and  preach 
this  Gospel ;  if  not  in  pulpits,  in  the  store,  in  the  fac- 
tory, in  the  shop,  in  the  street,  in  the  banking-house, 
everywhere.  Each  of  you  called  to  preach  this 
Gospel  somewhere,  a  voice  from  the  throne  saying 
this  day :  "  Woe  unto  you  if  you  preach  not  this 
Gospel." 


MUSIC. 

[After  Uaffaelle  d'  Urbino.J 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

MUSIC   IN   WORSHIP. 

The  best  music  has  been  rendered  under  trouble. 
The  first  duet  that  I  know  anything  of  was  given  by 
Paul  and  Silas  when  they  sang  praises  to  God  and 
the  prisoners  heard  them.  The  Scotch  Covenanters, 
hounded  by  the  dogs  of  persecution,  sang  the  psalms 
of  David  with  more  spirit  than  they  have  ever  since 
been  rendered.  All  our  churches  need  arousal  on 
this  subject.  Those  who  can  sing  must  throw  their 
souls  into  the  exercise,  and  those  who  cannot  sing 
must  learn  how,  and  it  shall  be  heart  to  heart,  voice  to 
voice,  hymn  to  hymn,  anthem  to  anthem,  and  the 
music  shall  swell  jubilant  with  thanksgiving  and 
tremulous  with  pardon.  Music  seems  to  have  been 
born  in  the  soul  of  the  natural  world.  The  om- 
nipotent voice  with  which  God  commanded  the 
world  into  being  seems  to  linger  yet  with  its  majesty 
and  sweetness,  and  you  hear  it  in  the  grain  field,  in 
the  swoop  of  the  wind  amid  the  mountain  fastnesses, 
in  the  canary's  warble,  and  the  thunder  shock,  in  the 
brook's  tinkle  and  the  ocean's  paean.  There  are  soft 
cadences  in  nature,  and  loud  notes,  some  of  which 
we  cannot  hear  at  all,  and  others  that  are  so  terrific 
that  we  cannot  appreciate  them. 

The  animalculae  have  their  music,  and  the  spicula 
of  hay  and  the  globule  of  water  are  as  certainly 
resonant  with  the  voice  of  God  as  the  highest 

359 


360  MUSIC   IN   WORSHIP. 

heavens  in  which  the  armies  of  the  redeemed  cele- 
brate their  victories.  When  the  breath  of  the  flower 
strikes  the  air,  and  the  wing  of  the  firefly  cleaves  it, 
there  is  sound  and  there  is  melody  ;  and  as  to  those 
utterances  of  nature  which  seem  harsh  and  over- 
whelming, it  is  as  when  you  stand  in  the  midst  of  a 
great  orchestra,  and  the  sound  almost  rends  your  ear 
because  you  are  too  near  to  catch  the  blending  of  the 
music.  So,  my  friends,  we  stand  too  near  the  desolat- 
ing storm  and  the  frightful  whirlwind  to  catch  the 
blending  of  the  music;  but  when  that  music  rises  to 
where  God  is,  and  the  invisible  beings  who  float 
above  us,  then  I  suppose  the  harmony  is  as  sweet  as 
it  is  tremendous. 

My  chief  interest  is  in  the  music  of  the  Bible.  The 
Bible,  like  a  great  harp  with  ^innumerable  strings, 
swept  by  the  fingers  of  inspiration,  trembles  with  it. 
So  far  back  as  the  fourth  chapter  of  Genesis  you  find 
the  first  organist  and  harper — Jubal.  So  far  back  as 
the  thirty-first  chapter  of  Genesis  you  find  the  first 
choir.  All  up  and  down  the  Bible  you  find  sacred 
music — at  weddings,  at  inaugurations,  at  the  treading 
of  the  wine  press.  Can  you  imagine  the  harmony 
when  these  white-robed  Levites,  before  the  symbols 
of  God's  presence,  and  by  the  smoking  altars,  and  the 
candlesticks  that  sprang  upward  and  branched  out 
like  trees  of  gold,  and  under  the  wings  of  the  cheru- 
bim, chanted  the  one  hundred  and  thirty-sixth  Psalm 
of  David  ?  You  know  how  it  was  done.  One  part 
of  that  great  choir  stood  up  and  chanted,  "  Oh  !  give 
thanks  unto  the  Lord,  for  He  is  good!"  Then  the 
other  part  of  the  choir,  standing  in  some  other  part 
of  the  temple,  would  come  in  with  the  response : 
"  For  His  mercy  endureth  forever."  Then  the  first 


MUSIC   IN   WORSHIP.  361 

part  would  take  up  the  song  again,  and  say,  u  Unto 
Him  who  only  doeth  great  wonders."  The  other  part 
of  the  choir  would  come  in  with  the  overwhelming 
response,  "  For  His  mercy  endureth  forever,"  until 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  song,  the  music  floating  back- 
ward and  forward,  harmony  grappling  with  harmony, 
every  trumpet  sounding,  every  bosom  heaving,  one 
part  of  this  great  white-robed  choir  would  lift  the 
anthem,  "  Oh !  give  thanks  unto  the  God  of  heaven," 
and  the  other  part  of  the  Levite  choir  would  come 
in  with  the  response :  "  For  His  mercy  endureth 
forever." 

Now,  my  friends,  how  are  we  to  decide  what  is 
appropriate,  especially  for  church  music  ?  There  may 
be  a  great  many  differences  of  opinion.  In  some  of 
the  churches  they  prefer  a  trained  choir ;  in  others, 
the  old  style  precentor.  In  some  places  they  prefer 
the  melodeon,  the  harp,  the  cornet,  the  organ  ;  in 
other  places  they  think  these  things  are  the  invention 
of  the  devil.  Some  would  have  a  musical  instrument 
played  so  loud  you  cannot  stand  it,  and  others  would 
have  it  played  so  soft  you  cannot  hear  it.  Some 
think  a  musical  instrument  ought  to  be  played  only 
in  the  interstices  of  worship,  and  then  with  indescri- 
bable softness  ;  while  others  are  not  satisfied  unless 
there  be  startling  contrasts  and  staccato  passages  that 
make  the  audience  jump,  with  great  eyes  and  hair  on 
end,  as  from  a  vision  of  the  Witch  of  Endor.  But, 
while  there  may  be  great  varieties  of  opinion  in 
regard  to  music,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  general  spirit 
of  the  Word  of  God  indicates  what  ought  to  be  the 
great  characteristic  of  church  music. 

And  I  remark,  in  the  first  place,  a  prominent  char- 
acteristic ought  to  be  adaptiveness  to  devotion. 


362  MUSIC   IN   WORSHIP. 

Music  that  may  be  appropriate  for  a  concert-hall,  or 
the  opera-house,  or  the  drawing-room,  may  be  shock- 
ing in  church.  Glees,  madrigals,  ballads,  may  be  as 
innocent  as  psalms  in  their  places.  But  church  music 
has  only  one  design,  and  that  is  devotion,  and  that 
which  comes  with  the  toss,  the  song,  and  the  display 
of  an  opera-house  is  a  hindrance  to  the  worship. 
From  such  performances  we  go  away  saying,  "  What 
splendid  execution !  Did  you  ever  hear  such  a 
soprano  ?  Which  of  those  solos  did  you  like  the  bet- 
ter?" When,  if  we  had  been  rightly  wrought  upon, 
we  would  have  gone  away  saying,  "Oh,  how  my  soul 
was  lifted  up  in  the  presence  of  God  while  they  were 
singing  that  first  hymn  !  I  never  had  such  rapturous 
views  of  Jesus  Christ  as  my  Saviour,  as  when  they 
were  singing  that  last  doxology." 

My  friends,  there  is  an  everlasting  distinction  be- 
tween music  as  an  art  and  music  as  a  help  to  devo- 
tion. Though  a  Schumann  composed  it,  though  a 
Mozart  played  it,  though  a  Sontag  sang  it,  away  with 
it  if  it  does  not  make  the  heart  better  and  honor 
Christ.  Why  should  we  -rob  the  programmes  of 
worldly  gayety,  when  we  have  so  many  appropriate 
songs  and  tunes  composed  in  our  own  day,  as  well  as 
that  magnificent  inheritance  of  Church  psalmody 
which  has  come  down  fragrant  with  the  devotions  of 
other  generations — tunes  no  more  worn  out  than  they 
were  when  our  great-grandfathers  climbed  up  on 
them  from  the  church  pew  to  glory  ? 

And  in  those  days  there  were  certain  tunes  mar- 
ried to  certain  hymns,  and  they  have  lived  in  peace  a 
great  while,  these  two  old  people,  and  we  have  no 
right  to  divorce  them.  "  What  God  hath  joined 
together  let  no  man  put  asunder."  Born,  as  we  have 


MUSIC   IN   WORSHIP.  363 

been,  amid  this  great  wealth  of  Church  music, 
augmented  by  the  compositions  of  artists  in  our  own 
day,  \ve  ought  not  to  be  tempted  out  of  the  sphere 
of  Christian  harmony,  and  try  to  seek  unconsecrated 
sounds.  It  is  absurd  for  a  millionaire  to  steal. 

I  remark  also,  that  correctness  ought  to  be  a  char- 
acteristic of  Church  music.  While  we  all  ought  to 
take  part  in  this  service,  with  perhaps  a  few  excep- 
tions, we  ought,  at  the  same  time,  to  culture  ourselves 
in  this  sacred  art.  God  loves  harmony,  and  we 
ought  to  love  it.  There  is  no  devotion  in  a  howl. 

Another  characteristic  must  be  spirit  and  life. 
Music  ought  to  rush  from  the  audience  like  the  water 
from  a  rock — clear,  bright,  sparkling.  If  all  the 
other  part  of  the  Church  service  is  dull,  do  not  have 
the  music  dull. 

With  so  many  thrilling  things  to  sing  about,  away 
with  all  drawling  and  stupidity.  There  is  nothing 
that  makes  me  so  nervous  as  to  sit  in  a  pulpit  and 
look  off  on  an  audience  with  their  eyes  three-fourths 
closed,  and  their  lips  almost  shut,  mumbling  the 
praises  of  God.  People  do  not  sleep  at  a  coronation ; 
do  not  let  us  sleep  when  we  come  to  a  Saviour's 
coronation. 

Again,  Church  music  must  be  congregational. 
This  opportunity  must  be  brought  down  within  the 
range  of  the  whole  audience.  A  song  that  the  wor- 
shipers can  not  sing  is  of  no  more  use  to  them  than  a 
sermon  in  Choctaw. 

Let  us  wake  up  to  this  duty.  Let  us  sing  alone, 
sing  in  our  families,  sing  in  our  schools,  sing  in  our 
churches. 

"  Gloria  in  Excelsis  "  is  written  over  many  organs. 
Would  that  by  our  appreciation  of  the  goodness  of 


364  MUSIC    INT   WORSHIP. 

God,  and  the  mercy  of  Christ,  and  the  grandeur  of 
heaven,  we  could  have  "Gloria  in  Excelsis"  written 
over  all  our  souls.  "  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to 
the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost ;  as  it  was  in  the 
beginning,  is  now,  and  ever  shall  be,  world  without 
end." 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

ABOLITION     OF    SUNDAY. 

While  the  evangelical  denominations  put  especial 
emphasis  upon  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath,  I  am  glad 
to  know  that  the  wisdom  of  resting  one  day .  in  the 
seven  is  almost  universally  acknowledged.  Men  have 
found  out  that  they  can  do  more  work  in  six  days 
than  they  can  in  seven.  The  world  has  found  out 
that  the  fifty-two  days  of  rest  are  not  a  subtraction, 
but  an  addition.  It  has  been  demonstrated  in  all  de- 
partments. Lord  Castlereagh  thought  he  could  work 
his  brain  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  in  the 
year,  and  he  broke  down  and  committed  suicide; 
and  Wilberforce  said  in  regard  to  him:  "Poor  Castle- 
reagh !  this  comes  from  non-observance  of  the  Sab- 
bath." A  prominent  merchant  of  New  York  said  : 
"I  should  long  ago  have  been  a  maniac  but  for  the 
observance  of  the  Sabbath."  The  nerves,  the  brain, 
the  muscles,  the  bones,  the  entire  physical,  mental, 
and  moral  constitution  cry  out  for  Sabbatic  rest. 

What  is  true  of  man  is  true  of  beast.  Travelers 
have  found  that  they  come  sooner  to  their  destination 
if  they  stop  one  day  in  the  seven.  What  is  the  mat- 
ter of  some  of  these  horses  attached  to  the  street  cars 
as  the  poor  creatures  go  stumbling  and  staggering 
on?  They  are  robbed  of  the  Sabbatic  rest.  In  the 
days  of  old,  when  the  sheep  and  the  cattle  were  driven 
from  the  far  West  to  the  sea-coast,  it  was  found  out 

365 


ABOLITION   OF   SUNDAY. 

by  positive  test  that  those  drovers  got  sooner  to  the 
seaboard  who  stopped  one  day  in  seven  on  the  way. 
They  came  sooner  to  the  seaboard  than  those  who 
drove  right  on.  The  fishermen  off  the  banks  of  New- 
foundland have  experimented  in  this  matter,  and 
they  find  that  they  catch  more  fish  in  the  year  when 
they  observe  the  Sabbath  than  in  the  year  when  they 
do  not  observe  the  Sabbath. 

When  I  asked  a  Rocky  Mountain  locomotive  en- 
gineer, as  I  was  riding  with  him,  "Why  do  you  switch 
off  your  locomotive  on  a  side  track  and  take  an- 
other?"— as  I  saw  he  was  about  to  do — "it  seems  to 
be  a  straight  route."  He  replied:  "Oh,  we  have  to 
let  the  locomotive  stop  and  cool  off,  or  the  machinery 
would  very  soon  break  down  !  "  The  manufacturers 
of  salt  were  told  if  they  allowed  their  kettles  to  cool 
one  day  in  seven  they  would  have  immense  repairs 
to  make  ;  but  the  experiment  was  made,  and  the  con- 
trast came,  and  it  was  found  that  those  manufacturers 
of  salt  who  allowed  the  kettles  to  cool  once  a  week 
had  less  repairs  to  make  than  those  who  kept  the 
furnaces  in  full  blast,  and  the  kettles  always  hot. 
What  does  all  this  mean?  It  means  that  the  intel- 
lectual man,  and  dumb  beast,  and  dead  machinery, 
cry  out  for  the  Lord's  day. 

A  manufacturer  declared  that  the  goods  his  men 
manufactured  in  the  early  part  of  the  week,  and  right 
after  the  Sabbath  rest,  were  always  better  than  the 
goods  manufactured  in  the  latter  part  of  the  wreek, 
and  when  his  men  were  tired.  The  Sabbath  comes, 
and  it  soothes  the  nerves,  and  it  puts  out  the  fires  of 
anxiety  which  have  burned  all  the  week.  The  fact 
is,  we  are  seven-day  clocks,  and  we  have  to  be  wound 
up  once  a  week  or  we  will  run  down  into  the  grave. 


ABOLITION   OF   SUNDAY.  367 

The  Sabbath  is  a  savings  bank  into  which  we  gather 
up  our  resources  of  physical  and  mental  strength  to 
draw  on  all  the  week.  That  man  gives  a  mortgage 
to  disease  and  death  who  works  on  the  Sabbath,  and 
at  the  most  unexpected  moment  the  mortgage  will 
be  foreclosed  and  the  soul  ejected  from  the  premises. 
Every  gland,  every  cell,  every  globule,  every  finger- 
nail, cry  out:  "Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep 
it  holy  !" 

A  London  banker  says :  "  I  came  to  London  thirty 
years  ago,  and  I  have  had  a  great  deal  of  observation, 
and  I  have  noticed  that  the  bankers  who  went  to 
their  places  of  business  on  the  Sabbath,  and  attended 
to  affairs,  and  settled  up  their  accounts,  failed,  and 
without  one  exception."  A  Boston  merchant  says: 
"I  have  observed  a  long  while,  and  I  have  noticed 
when  out  on  the  Long  Wharf,  merchants  kept  their 
men  busy  loading  vessels  on  Sunday,  and  at  work 
from  morn  until  night  on  the  sacred  day — I  noticed 
all  those  merchants  came  to  nothing,  and  their  chil- 
dren came  to  nothing."  "Gentlemen,"  said  a  mer- 
chant, although  he  is  a  man  of  the  world — "gentle- 
men, it  don't  pay  to  work  on  Sunday." 

While  the  flail,  and  the  axe,  and  the  yardstick  have 
not  been  able  to  destroy  the  Sabbath,  and  the  vast 
majority  of  people,  from  sanitary  reasons,  have  about 
concluded  it  is  best  to  rest  on  the  Sabbath,  there  is 
an  attempt  to  destroy  the  Lord's  day,  on  one  side  by 
the  grog-shops,  and  on  the  other  side  by  secular 
amusements.  I  say  it  is  time  for  all  good  citizens, 
whether  they  are  temperance  men  or  not — it  is  time 
for  all  honest  citizens,  and  all  men  who  have  a  pride 
in  their  homes,  to  rise  up  and  put  down  this  infamous 
business,  at  any  rate  one  day  of  the  week.  Certainly, 


368  ABOLITION   OF   SUNDAY. 

if  they  have  full  swing  Monday,  Tuesday,  Wednes- 
day, Thursday,  Friday,  and  Saturday,  they  ought  to 
give  us  at  least  one  day  of  rest  from  this  awful  evil 
which  is  abroad  amid  the  nations. 

Then,  there  is  an  effort  being  made  by  secular 
amusements  to  destroy  our  Sabbaths.  In  many  of 
the  cities,  all  the,  or  nearly  all  the,  places  of  theatric 
and  operatic  entertainment  are  open.  There  are 
thousands  of  pens  busy  trying  to  write  down  the 
Christian  Sabbath,  and  it  is  a  question  whether  we 
are  going  to  have  pluck  and  grit  and  consecration 
enough  to  hand  down  to  our  children  the  Sabbath 
we  got  from  our  ancestors. 

I  am  opposed  to  all  these  invasions  of  the  Sabbath, 
because  they  run  against  the  divine  enactment.  God 
says:  "If  thou  turn  away  thy  foot  from  doing  thy 
pleasure  on  my  holy  day,  thou  shalt  walk  upon  the 
high  places."  What  does  He  mean  by  "doing  thy 
pleasure"  ?  He  means  secular  amusement.  A  man 
was  telling  me  how  he  was  affrighted  when,  during 
the  time  of  an  earthquake,  he  heard  the  bellowing  of 
the  cattle  in  the  field,  and  even  the  barnyard  fowl 
screamed  in  horror.  I  tell  you  that  it  was  in  time  of 
earthquake,  and  when  the  mountains  were  full  of  fire, 
that  God  sent  forth  the  enactment:  "Remember 
the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy,"  the  agonies  of  na- 
ture emphasizing  the  divine  injunction. 

"Oh,"  says  some,  "haven't  you  any  regard  for  the 
people's  rights?"  Yes.  I  believe  in  the  people  hav- 
ing their  rights,  but  has  not  the  Lord  any  rights? 
You  govern  your  family,  and  the  Governor  rules  the 
State,  and  the  President  rules  the  United  States. 
Do  you  really  think  the  Lord  Almighty,  who  made 
the  heavens  and  the  earth,  has  a  right  to  rule  the 


ABOLITION   OF   SUNDAY.  369 

universe?  Had  He  a  right  to  make  the  enactment, 
"Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy"? 
There  is  no  higher  court  than  that.  1  declare  it  now, 
in  the  presence  of  all  the  people,  whether  it  be  a  pop- 
ular or  an  unpopular  thing  to  say,  the  people  have 
no  rights  except  those  which  the  Lord  God  Almighty 
gives  them. 

I  am  opposed  to  all  these  infractions  of  the  Sabbath, 
because  they  are  attempting  to  introduce  in  this 
country  the  Parisian  Sunday. 

I  was  awakened  in  Paris  by  a  great  racket  in  the 
street,  and  I  rushed  to  the  window  to  see  what  was 
the  matter.  I  said  to  some  one  :  "What  is  the  mat- 
ter?" I  said  to  another,  "What  is  the  matter?"  "Oh," 
they  replied,  "it  is  Sunday  !"  Sunday  !  All  the  ve- 
hicles rushing  hither  and  thither.  People  talking  at 
the  height  of  their  voices,  and  in  the  most  boisterous 
manner.  The  Champs  Elysees  one  great  mass,  one 
rreat  mob  of  pleasure-seekers.  Balloons  flying  ;  par- 
rots chattering;  footballs  rolling;  Punch  and  Judy 
shows  in  scores  of  places,  each  with  a  shouting  audi- 
ence; hand-organs  and  cymbals,  and  all  styles  of 
racket,  musical  and  unmusical.  Sunday  !  Sunday  ! 
And  then  as  the  day  passed  on  toward  night  I  stood 
and  saw  the  excursionists  come  home,  fagged-out 
men,  women,  and  children,  a  great  Gulf  Stream  of 
fatigue,  and  irritability,  and  wretchedness.  A 
drunken  Fourth  of  July  instead  of  a  Christian  Sun- 
day. How  would  you  like  to  have  such  a  Sunday 
as  that  in  this  country  ? 

Compare  it  with  the  Christian  Sabbath  in  one  of 
our  best  cities.  At  day-dawn  a  holy  silence  comes 
down.  The  business  man  tarries  longer  on  the  pil- 
low, because  there  are  no  store  doors  to  open,  no 


370  ABOLITION   OF   SUNDAY. 

hard  work  to  be  engaged  in.  The  family  tarry 
longer  around  the  table.  There  is  no  rushing  off  to 
business.  After  awhile  there  is  a  song  sung.  After 
awhile  there  is  a  prayer  offered,  and  after  awhile 
about  ten  o'clock,  there  is  a  long  procession  church- 
ward, and  there  they  praise  God  for  His  goodness, 
and  they  contribute  to  the  poor,  the  suffering,  and 
the  wandering.  Which  Sunday  do  you  like  the 
best? 

I  will  tell  you  in  which  boat  the  Sabbath  came  to 
this  country,  and  in  which  boat  it  will  go  out.  The 
Sabbath  came  to  this  country  in  the  Mayflower,  and 
if  it  ever  leaves,  if  the  Sabbath  ever  leaves  this 
country,  it  will  go  in  the  ark  that  floats  above  a  del- 
uge of  a  destroyed  nation.  If  you  have  ever  been 
in  Brussels  or  in  Paris  on  the  Sabbath  day,  it  requires 
no  great  persuasion  for  me  on  my  part  to  get  you  to 
pray  morning,  noon  and  night,  that  such  a  Sabbath 
may  never  come  to  this  country. 

Then  all  these  movements  are  a  war  upon  our  po- 
litical institutions.  When  the  Sabbath  goes  down 
the  Republic  goes  down.  Dissoluteness  is  inconsist- 
ent with  self-government.  Sabbath-breaking  is  dis- 
soluteness. What  is  the  matter  with  republicanism 
in  Italy  and  in  Spain  ?  No  Sabbath.  What  is  the 
matter  with  republicanism  in  France  ?  France  got  a 
republic,  but  one  day  the  modern  Napoleon  rode 
through  the  Champs  Elysees,  and  the  republic  went 
down  under  the  clattering  hoofs.  France  has  a  re- 
public again,  but  how  often  it  quakes  from  end  to 
end,  and  one  of  the  Commune  has  only  just  to  plas- 
ter an  insurgent  advertisement  against  a  stone  wall, 
and  all  France  is  aquake  and  in  fear  of  revolution 
that  is  to  come.  France  will  never  have  any  quiet, 


ABOLITION   OF   SUNDAY.  371 

happy  and  permanent  republic  until  she  quits  her 
roystering  Sabbaths  and  recognizes  God  and  sacred 
things.  Abolish  the  Sabbath,  and  then  you  have  the 
Commune  in  America.  Abolish  the  Sabbath,  and 
then  you  have  revolution,  and  then  you  have  the  sun 
of  prosperity  going  down  in  darkness  and  in  blood. 
May  the  Lord  God  of  Lexington  and  Bunker  Hill 
and  Gettysburg  avert  the  catastrophe  !  O  men  and 
women  who  believe  in  Christian  things,  O  men  and 
women  in  favor  of  popular  liberty,  stand  in  solid 
phalanx  in  this  Thermopylae  of  our  national  history, 
for  as  certain  as  I  stand  here  and  you  sit  there,  the 
triumph  or  overthrow  of  republican  institutions  in 
this  country  will  be  decided  in  this  Sabbatic  contest. 
Rally  your  voices,  your  pens,  your  printing-presses 
and  all  your  influence  in  the  Lord's  artillery  corps  in 
behalf  of  the  Christian  Sabbath.  Decree  before  high 
heaven  that  the  Sabbath  which  you  received  from 
your  ancestors  shall  go  down  undamaged  to  your 
children.  For  those  who  die  battling  in  this  contest 
we  will  chisel  the  epitaph  :  '•  These  are  they  who 
came  out  of  great  tribulation,  and  had  their  robes 
washed  and  made  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb." 
But  for  that  man  who  proves  recreant  to  the  cause 
of  God  and  his  country  in  a  crisis  like  this,  there 
shall  be  no  honorable  epitaph,  and  he  shall  not  be 
worthy  of  any  burial-place  in  all  this  land,  but  per- 
haps some  steam  tug  at  midnight  may  take  him  out 
and  drop  him  in  the  sea  where  the  lawless  winds 
which  observe  no  Sunday  may  gallop  over  the  grave 
of  him  who  in  life  and  death  proved  himself  a  traitor 
to  the  cause  of  God  and  American  institutions.  Long 
live  the  Christian  Sabbath !  Perish  forever  all  at- 
tempt to  overthrow  it ! 


CHAPTER   XXXVIII. 

THE   BLOOD. 

"  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  His  Son  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin."- 
:  JOHN  1:7. 

I  know  that  circumstances  sometimes  aggravate 
one's  transgressions.  If  a  child  unwittingly  does 
wrong  you  easily  forgive  him  ;  but  we  have  done 
wrong,  and  we  knew  we  were  doing  wrong.  Every 
time  man  sins  conscience  rings  the  funeral  bell.  We 
may  pretend  not  to  hear  it,  we  may  put  our  fingers 
in  our  ears  and  try  to  go  away  from  that  sound  ;  but 
having  transgressed,  although  we  may  have  our  fin- 
gers in  our  ears,  we  will  hear  the  word  coming, 
"  The  wages  of  sin  is  death.  The  soul  that  sinneth, 
it  shall  die.  The  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard." 
When  you  and  I  do -wrong,  when  we  have  said  that 
which  we  ought  not  to  have  said,  when  we  have  done 
that  which  we  ought  not  to  have  done,  we  knew  it, 
we  knew  it. 

I  can  come  to  the  man  who  declares  he  is  the 
worst  man  on  earth,  and  I  can  preach  the  Gospel 
with  just  as  much  confidence  to  him  as  to  this  man 
who  has  all  his  life  preserved  his  integrity.  Oh,  the 
broadness  of  this  Gospel  that  says,  "  Whosoever, 
wJiosoevcr!  "  However  far  you  have  wandered  away 
from  God  you  can  come  back,  though  you  have  gone 
through  all  the  sins  of  the  decalogue.  "  Whosoever, 
whosoever  will,  let  him  come." 

372 


THE   BLOOD.  373 

"  Oh,"  says  some  man,  "  all  that  is  very  true  for 
immoral  people,  but  I  have  been  a  moral  man  all  my 
life,  and  I  don't  need  the  gracious  pardon."  Have 
your  thoughts  always  been  right?  Would  you  like 
to  have  the  thoughts  of  the  last  fifteen  years  written 
out  and  presented  before  the  eye  of  the  world  ?  No. 
And  if  you  would  not  want  the  thoughts  of  the  last 
fifteen  years  all  written  out  before  the  eye  of  the 
world,  certainly  you  could  not  stand  the  divine 
scrutiny.  Now,  there  is  my  right  hand,  and  there  is 
my  left  hand.  You  see  the  one  just  as  plainly  as  the 
other.  Well  now,  the  sin  of  the  heart  and  the  sin  of 
the  life  are  as  plain  before  God,  the  one  as  the  other, 
and  a  thought  to  Him  is  just  as  plain  as  an  action. 
Ah  !  you  need  the  pardon  of  the  Gospel. 

You  say  you  have  never  committed  this,  and  you 
have  never  committed  that,  and  you  would  not  have 
done  as  this  man  did,  and  you  would  not  as  this  man 
have  gone  astray  in  this  direction,  and  as  that  man  in 
another  direction.  Why,  my  brother,  whether  you 
know  it  or  not,  you  have  gone  astray  in  many  direc- 
tions. You  say  you  have  never  committed  murder. 
How  do  you  know  ?  Have  you  ever  hated  anybody? 
Yes.  Then  you  are  a  murderer.  The  Bible  says  so. 
Christ  says  so.  "  He  that  hateth  his  brother  is  a 
murderer."  Do  you  hate  anybody  now  ?  Is  there 
anybody  in  all  the  earth  you  hate  now  ?  You  are  a 
murderer.  "  He  that  hateth  his  brother  is  a  mur- 
derer." So,  my  brother,  you  are  not  as  pure  as  you 
thought  you  were,  you  are  not  as  good  as  you 
thought  you  were,  if  you  say  you  have  no  sin  to  be 
forgiven. 

You  say  you  have  never  committed  theft.  I  do 
not  suppose  you  have  ever  wronged  your  fellow-man, 


374  TIIE  BLOOD. 

but  have  you  taken  an  hour  of  a  day  from  God  and 
devoted  it  to  wrong  purposes?  If  you  have,  then 
you  have  been  guilty  of  robbing  God.  It  is  a  mean 
thing  to  steal  from  a  man.  It  is  a  worse  thing  to  steal 
from  God.  The  Bible  cries  out,  Will  a  man  rob  God  ? 
Yes ;  we  have  all  robbed  Him.  Now,  let  us  come  to 
confessional,  and  let  us  acknowledge  that  we  need 
the  mercy  and  the  pardon  of  God.  We  all  need  it ; 
there  is  not  an  exception.  "All  have  sinned  and 
come  short  of  the  glory  of  God.  There  is  none  that 
doeth  good,  no,  not  one." 

Just  let  me  blow  the  trumpet  of  resurrection,  and 
let  the  sins  of  the  best  man  in  this  house — all  the  sins 
of  his  past  life — come  up.  Let  the  larger  sin  of  the 
hundred  be  captain  of  the  company,  and  let  the 
greater  sin  of  the  thousand  be  colonel  of  the  regi- 
ment, and  let  the  mightiest  sin  of  his  life  command 
the  forces,  vast  as  those  of  Xerxes,  vaster,  vaster. 
All  the  sins  of  that  man's  life  coming  down  upon  him. 
One  man  against  a  million  transgressions,  what 
chance  has  he?  Where  in  the  round  of  God's 
mercy  is  there  any  help  for  us?  Rise,  you  seas,  and 
whelm  the  host.  Strike,  you  lightning,  and  consume 
the  foe.  The  wave  rolls  back  from  the  beach,  and 
says,  "  No  help  in  me."  The  lightning  sheathes  it- 
self in  the  black  scabbard  of  the  midnight  cloud,  and 
says,  "  No  help  in  me."  Yonder  I  see  the  rider  on 
the  white  horse.  Make  way  for  the  courier.  He 
swings  his  sword.  It  is  the  captain  of  salvation  come 
for  our  rescue.  Fall  back,  my  sins.  Fall  back,  my 
sorrows.  All  the  transgressions  of  my  heart  and  life 
are  utterly  scattered,  and  I  cry,  "  Vrictory  through 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ !"  Oh,  what  a  Christ  he  is. 

Do  you  wonder  that  men  and  women  have  died  for 


THE   BLOOD.  375 

Him?  Do  you  wonder  that  Margaret,  the  Scotch 
girl,  would  not  give  up  her  Lord  when  fastened  clown 
to  the  beach  of  the  sea,  and  the  persecutors  thought, 
as  the  waves  rolled  on, she  would  give  up  her  Christ? 
But  fastened  down  at  the  beach  when  the  tide  was 
out,  she  continued  in  prayer  until  the  tide  came  up, 
came  to  the  ankles,  came  to  the  girdle,  came  to  the 
shoulder,  came  to  the  lip,  and  with  her  last  utterance 
she  said,  "  My  Lord,  my  God  !  He  has  been  so  good 
to  me ;  I  cannot  surrender  Him  now,  though  the 
waves  may  go  over  me — my  Lord,  my  Christ,  my 
pardon,  my  peace,"  and  the  waves  rolled  over  her. 

Do  you  wonder  that  men  and  women  and  children 
have  died  for  such  a  Lord  as  this  ?  Oh,  do  you  not 
want  His  consolation  as  well  as  pardon  ?  How  many 
of  you  have  had  misfortunes  and  trials,  and  you  want 
this  Christ.  Oh,  when  those  into  whose  bosom  we 
have  breathed  our  sorrows  are  snatched  away,  Christ's 
heart  still  beats ;  and  when  all  other  lights  go  out  we 
see  coming  out  from  behind  the  cloud  something  that 
we  cannot  at  first  tell  what  it  is,  but  it  gets  brighter 
and  brighter,  and  we  find  it.  is  the  star,  the  star  of 
hope,  the  star  of  consolation,  the  star  of  Jesus ! 

Oh,  there  are  different  kinds  of  hands.  There  is 
the  hand  of  care  that  opens  hard  on  you,  and  there  is 
the  hand  of  bereavement  that  snatched  your  loved 
ones  away  from  you,  and  there  is  the  hand  of  tempt- 
ation that  strikes  you  back  into  darkness ;  but  there 
is  a  hand  so  different  from  all  these,  and  it  is  so  kind, 
and  it  is  so  gentle.  It  is  the  hand  that  wipeth  away 
all  tears  from  all  eyes — it  is  the  hand  of  Jesus.  Do 
you  not  want  Him?  Would  you  not  like  to  have 
that  pardon  to-day  ?  Would  you  not  like  to  have  His 
comfort? 


376  THE  BLOOD. 

As  at  the  sea  beach  we  join  hands  and  go  down 
and  bathe,  and  let  the  waters  roll  over  us,  and  we 
feel  great  exhilaration,  I  wish  we  could  by  scores  and 
hundreds  and  thousands  to-day  just  join  hands,  and 
wade  down  in  this  great  Atlantic  of  God's  forgive- 
ness— not  standing  on  the  margin  paddling  the  rip- 
ples with  our  feet,  but  wading  clear  down  in  the  sea 
and  letting  the  crimson  billows  roll  over  us.  Oh, 
you  must  have  this  Christ!  If  you  reject  Him,  all 
those  gaping  wounds  will  plead  against  you,  and  they 
will  haunt  you  through  eternity  with  the  thought  of 
what  you  might  have  been.  Oh,  take  your  feet  out  of 
your  Brother's  blood  !  Do  not  go  down  condemned 
for  fratricide  and  regicide  and  deicide.  Do  not  do 
it !  Better  for  thee  that  Calvary  had  never  borne  its 
burden,  and  better  for  thee  that  those  loving  lips  had 
never  uttered  an  invitation,  if,  rejecting  all,  you  go 
down  into  desolation  and  darkness,  your  hands  and 
feet  bedabbled  with  the  blood  of  the  Son  of  God.  O 
dying  but  immortal  men,  O  judgment-bound  hearers, 
repent,  believe,  and  live  !  How  shall  we  escape  if 
we  neglect  so  great  salvation  ? 

There  will  be  a  password  at  the  gate  of  heaven ! 
I  see  a  great  multitude  coming  up,  and  they  say, 
'  Make  way,  open  the  gate,  let  us  in,  we  were  hon- 
ored on  earth  ;  we  had  a  great  position  in  the  world, 
:ind  we  want  a  great  position  in  heaven.'  But  the 
gate-keeper  says,  "  I  never  knew  you."  Here  come 
another  throng.  They  say,  "  We  did  a  great  many 
magnanimous  things,  we  endowed  colleges,  we  estab- 
lished schools,  and  we  were  celebrated  for  our  phil- 
anthropies. Open  the  gate  now.  Let  us  come  in 
and  get  our  reward."  A  voice  from  within  says,  "  1 
never  knew  you."  But  here  come  up  a  great  throng, 


THE   BLOOD.  377 

thousands  and  tens  of  thousands,  and  they  knock  at 
the  gate.  They  say :  "  We  were  wanderers  from 
God,  and  we  deserved  to  die,  but  we  heard  the  voice 
of  Jesus."  "Aye,"  says  the  gate-keeper,  "  that  is  the 
pass-word — Jesus,  Jesus,  Jesus  !  Lift  up  your  heads, 
ye  everlasting  gates,  and  let  them  come  in." 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

CAN  THE   UNPARDONABLE   SIN  BE  COMMITTED  IN 
OUR  TIME? 

In  my  opinion,  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost  was 
ascribing  the  works  of  the  Spirit  to  Satanic  agency. 
Indeed,  the  Bible  distinctly  so  declares.  Here  is  a 
man  who  is  restored  to  sight  after  having  been  blind, 
and  in  Christ's  time  a  man  says  to  him,  "  That's  the 
work  of 'Beelzebub;"  or  a  man  dead  is  brought  to 
life  by  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  some  one  says,  "  That 
man  was  brought  to  life  by  Satanic  power,  and  not 
by  Divine  power."  As  soon  as  a  man  thought  that 
or  said  that,  he  dropped  under  the  curse. 

I  do  not  believe  it  is  possible  to  commit  that  sin  in 
our  time.  I  think  it  only  could  be  committed  in 
apostolic  times.  The  day  of  miracles  has  ceased,  and 
Christ  is  not  present  in  body,  and  I  have  the  opinion 
that  that  sin  cannot  be  committed  in  our  own  day. 
However,  it  is  a  very  dangerous  thing  to  say  any- 
thing against  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  the  human  race 
has  been  most  mercifully  kept  from  that.  You  have 
heard  men  swear  by  the  name  of  Almighty  God,  and 
swear  by  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  you  have 
never  heard  any  one  swear  by  the  Holy  Ghost ;  so  I 
can  feel  there  is  salvation  for  all. 

But  there  are  persons  who  are  afraid  that  they 
have  committed  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
that  they  can  never  be  pardoned.  That  very  anxiety 

378 


THE    UNPARDONABLE   SIN.  379 

was  produced  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  shows  you 
are  not  forsaken.  And  this  anxiety  which  you  feel 
in  regard  to  this  subject,  and  this  earnest  question 
that  you  are  asking,  are  proof  positive  that  your  soul 
is  being  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  you  are  not 
becalmed  forever.  There  is  an  opportunity  of  getting 
into  the  harbor. 

A  man  may  commit  an  irrevocable  sin. 

That  is,  he  may  do  a  wrong  that  can  never  be  cor- 
rected, he  may  do  something  for  which  afterward  he 
shall  seek  a  place  of  repentance  and  not  find  it, 
though  he  seek  it  with  tears.  Esau  had  a  birthright. 
It  meant  temporal  and  spiritual  blessing.  In  a  fit  of 
hunger  one  day  he  traded  it  off  for  something  to  eat. 
As  though  you  should  take  bonds  and  mortgages  and 
government  securities,  and  in  some  fit  of  recklessness 
or  hunger  you  should  go  into  a  restaurant  and  put 
down  these  valuables  and  legally  transfer  them  in 
order  that  you  might  get  some  style  of  food.  Esau 
for  a  mess  of  pottage  sold  his  birthright.  He  was 
very  sorry  about  it  afterward,  but  he  could  not  get  it 
back.  He  sought  a  place  of  repentance,  and  sought 
it  carefully  and  with  tears,  but  could  not  find  it. 

Now,  while  I  do  not  think  it  is  possible  for  you  to 
commit  the  unpardonable  sin,  it  is  possible  for  you 
and  for  me  to  make  irrevocable  mistakes,  and  in  this 
class  of  irrevocable  mistakes,  in  the  first  place,  I  put 
the  follies  of  a  misspent  youth. 

At  forty,  or  fifty,  or  sixty  years  of  age  we  may 
wake  up  and  say,  "  Oh,  the  neglects  of  my  early 
studies  when  I  was  at  school  or  college ;  how  I 
neglected  geology,  and  mathematics,  and  chemistry; 
I  wish  I  had  not  neglected  them  ;  how  very  helpful 
they  would  have  been  to  me  in  the  duties  of  life ;  I 


380  THE    UNPARDONABLE   SIN. 

am  sorry."  Are  you  sorry?  You  will  never  get 
back  those  advantages,  it  does  not  make  any  differ- 
ence how  sorry  you  are.  God  will  forgive  you,  but 
you  will  never  forgive  yourself.  You  may  say,  "  Oh, 
if  I  had  only  disciplined  my  mind  when  I  had 'the 
opportunity  !  "  I  do  not  wonder  at  your  regret.  You 
can  seek  a  place  of  repentance ;  you  will  seek  it  in 
vain,  you  cannot  find  it.  A  man  at  fifty  years  of  age 
says,  "  Oh,  I  wish  I  had  not  on  me  these  habits  of  in- 
dolence! When  will  I  ever  get  rid  of  them?" 
Never.  Every  stroke  of  work  you  do  will  be  against 
the  protest  of  your  entire  physical  nature.  You  'get 
that  habit  on  you  when  you  are  twenty  or  twenty-five 
years  of  age,  and  you  will  never  get  over  it. 

A  man  always — every  man  has  an  idea  in  his  mind 
that  somewhere  in  the  future  there  will  be  a  time 
when  he  can  correct  his  mistakes.  If  we  only  repent 
in  time  God  will  forgive  us,  and  then  it  will  be  just 
as  though  we  had  never  sinned.  My  subject  runs  in 
collision  with  that  theory.  There  are  those  who  go 
in  the  days  of  their  youth  and  commit  transgressions. 
They  call  it  "  sowing  wild  oats." 

They  say,  "  Oh,  we'll  get  over  these  things  after  a 
while,  and  then  we'll  devote  ourselves  to  high  and 
noble  enterprises."  "  They  that  sow  to  the  winds 
will  reap  the  whirlwind."  A  man  at  forty  or  fifty 
years  of  age  says,  "  Oh,  if  it  wasn't  for  the  sins  of  my 
youth,  what  a  strong  constitution  I  would  have  had, 
and  how  useful  I  might  have  been  to  the  world  and 
the  church."  You  are  sorry.  Are  you?  Yes,  but 
that  does  not  bring  back  the  energy  that  you  lost. 

God  forgives,  but  the  laws  of  nature  never  forgive. 
Why  do  I  say  this?  To  give  annoyance  to  those 
who  have  only  baneful  retrospection?  No,  for  the 


THE   UNPARDONABLE   SIN.  381 

benefit  of  these  young  people.  I  want  them  to 
understand  that  people  never  get  over  the  sins  of 
their  youth,  though  God  may  forgive  those  sins.  I 
want  them  to  understand  that  eternity  is  wrapped  up 
in  this  hour.  I  want  them  to  understand  that  a 
minute  is  not  made  up  of  sixty  seconds,  but  of  ever- 
lasting ages.  Oh,  what  a  dignity  this  gives  to  the 
lives  of  these  young  people  !  In  the  light  of  this  sub- 
ject life  is  not  something  to  be  srnirked  about,  not 
something  to  be  danced  at,  but  something  to  be 
weighed  in  everlasting  balances,  the  balances  of  eter- 
nity. Young  man,  the  sin  you  committed  yesterday, 
the  sin  you  commit  to-day,  the  sin  you  shall  commit 
to-morrow,  will  be  an  everlasting  sin  in  some  re- 
spects. (God  may  forgive  you,  the  laws  of  nature 
never  will.  The  scars  of  that  sin  will  be  everlasting. 
We  start  our  children.  When  they  are  ten  years 
of  age  we  wake  up  and  try  to  correct  this  or  that 
habit.  It  is  too  late,  I  believe  that  if  parents  do 
not  make  an  impression  upon  a  child  for  Christ  and 
for  heaven  before  ten  years  are  past,  they  never  will 
make  any  impression.  Talk  about  people  beginning 
life  at  twenty-one  ;  life  is  decided  between  ten  and 
twenty  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten.  The  following  fifty 
years  is  not  of  so  much  importance  in  the  formation 
of  character  as  the  first  twenty.  A  man  wakes  up 
at  fifty  years  of  age.  He  says,  "  I  must  become  a 
Christian ;  here  and  now  I  yield  my  heart  to  God." 
He  goes  home  a  Christian.  He  has  spent  all  his  life 
in  worldliness  and  sin.  He  says,  "  Now  let  us  call 
the  family  together,  and  have  prayers."  He  opens 
his  Bible.  He  says,  "  Call  the  family  together." 
Where  are  the  family  ?  One  in  New  Orleans,  one  in 
Cincinnati,  one  in  Boston,  two  in  eternity.  Ah,  he 


382  THE   UNPARDONABLE   SIN. 

cannot  call  his  family  together !  I  say  it  for  the 
benefit  of  young  parents,  parents  of  twenty-five,  or 
thirty,  or  thirty-five,  now  is  the  time  for  family 
prayers,  now  is  the  time  to  call  your  family  together. 

Oh,  the  time  to  train  our  children  for  God  and  for 
heaven  is  at  the  start ;  it  is  at  the  start.  When  a 
man  comes  at  fifty  years  of  age  and  chooses  God,  I 
congratulate  him,  but  oh,  I  think  what  a  pity  you 
did  not  come  twenty-five  years  ago. 

A  father  was  trying  to  illustrate  to  his  son  his  evil 
habits,  and  every  time  the  son  committed  a  sin  the 
lather  drove  a  nail  into  a  post  until  there  were  many 
nails  in  the  post.  The  young  man,  after  a  while, 
began  to  repent  his  sins,  and  give  up  his  evil  habits, 
and  every  time  he  repented,  the  father  took  a  nail 
out  of  the  post,  until  after  a  while  the  nails  were  all 
gone  out  of  the  post.  "But,"  said  the  son,  "Father, 
the  scars  are  all  there  yet."  God  forgives,  but  the 
scars  stav.  Do  not  be  under  the  infatuation,  young 
men,  that  because  God  forgives  you,  and  because  so- 
ciety after  a  while  may  forgive  you,  the  laws  of 
nature  are  ever  going  to  forgive  you.  The  follies  of 
youth  are  irrevocable  mistakes. 

In  Belgium,  sixty  years  ago,  some  miners  got  into 
a  quarrel,  and  one  set  of  miners,  in  order  to  revenge 
another  set  of  miners,  set  fire  to  the  mine  where  they 
were  working.  That  fire  has  burned  on  for  half  a 
century  ;  it  is  blazing  to-day.  They  can  not  put  it 
out.  It  never  will  be  put  out  until  it  is  wrapped  in 
the  greater  conflagration  of  the  last  day.  It  is  easy 
to  start  a  fire  that  never  will  be  quenched.  Oh, 
young  men,  be  not  under  the  infatuation  that  the  sins 
of  your  youth  can  ever  be  eradicated.  God  will  for- 
give you,  and  you  may  enter  heaven,  but  the  scars 
will  be  there  yet. 


THE   UNPARDONABLE   SIN.  383 

In  this  list  I  also  put  all  lost  opportunities  of  get- 
ting good.  I  never  come  to  a  Saturday  night  but  I 
can  see  that  during  the  week  theie  were  opportu- 
nities where  I  might  have  bettered  my  spiritual  condi- 
tion. I  never  come  to  a  birthday  but  I  think  there 
were  times  during  the  past  year  that  might  have 
been  made  better,  and  I  neglected  the  opportunity. 
How  is  it  with  you  ?  Have  you  lost  any  oppor- 
tunities ? 

If  a  farmer  takes  a  oertain  number  of  bushels  of 
wheat,  and  he  throws  this  wheat  on  a  certain  number 
of  acres  of  ground  properly  prepared,  he  expects  a 
proportionate  number  of  sheaves.  Have  the  sheaves 
of  your  moral  and  spiritual  harvest  corresponded 
with  the  truth  arid  the  advantages  planted  ?  I  cannot 
tell  you,  my  brother,  my  sister.  You  know.  You 
know.  -  What  does  that  mean  ?  Why,  it  means,  if  we 
are  going  to  get  any  good  out  of  this  Sabbath  we  are 
going  to  get  it  before  the  hand  of  the  clock  turns 
around  to  twelve  to-night.  It  means  that  opportu- 
nities gone  are  gone  forever.  It  means  that  while  at 
our  feasts  the  chalice  may  be  passed  to  me  and  I  may 
decline  it,  yet  that  very  chalice  may  come  back  to  me 
after  a  while  ;  in  this  matter  of  the  Gospel  feast  a 
chalice  comes  and  I  reject  it — it  never  comes  back — 
never.  That  one  opportunity  gone  forever. 

In  this  class  I  put  all  lost  opportunities  of  use- 
fulness. 

There  is  a  chance  of  benefiting  that  man  once — 
never  again.  You  have  a  business  partner  who  is  a 
proud,  arrogant  man.  If  ordinarily  you  should  say 
to  him,  "  Attend  to  the  things  of  the  soul,  become  a 
Christian,"  he  would  say  to  you,  "  Mind  your  own 
business,  and  I'll  mind  mine."  But  there  has  been  an 


384  THE   UNPARDONABLE   SIN. 

affliction  in  his  household,  and  his  heart  is  tender, 
lie  is  looking  for  sympathy  and  solace.  Now  is  your 
time,  oh,  man  !  Speak,  or  forever  hold  your  peace. 
You  are  in  a  religious  meeting.  A  great  impression 
is  being  produced.  Something  says  to  you,  "  Now  is 
the  time  for  you  to  speak  a  word  for  God."  Your 
cheek  flushes ;  you  half  arise  from  your  seat ;  you 
sink  back,  cowering  before  men  whose  breath  is  in 
their  nostrils.  Your  neglect  will  tell  on  eternal  ages. 
A  lost  opportunity  of  getting  good,  or  of  doing 
good,  never  comes  back.  You  may  fish  for  it ;  it  will 
never  take  the  hook.  You  may  dig  for  it;  it  will 
never  be  found. 


CHAPTER  XL. 

INTOLERANCE. 

"  Then     said  they    unto     him,    Say    now    Shibboleth ;    and    he 

said     Sibboleth ;  for    he   could    not   frame   to     pronounce   it   right. 

Then    they   took  him,  and  slew  him    at   the  passages  of  Jordan.'' — 
JUDGES  12:  6. 

Do  you  notice  the  difference  of  pronunciation  be- 
tween shibboleth  and  sibboleth?  A  very  small  and 
unimportant  difference,  you  say.  And  yet,  that  dif- 
ference was  the  difference  between  life  and  death  for 
a  great  many  people.  The  Lord's  people,  Gilead 
and  Ephraim,  got  into  a  great  fight,  and  Ephraim 
•.vas  worsted,  and  on  the  retreat  came  to  the  fords  of 
the  river  Jordan  to  cross.  Order  was  given  that  all 
Ephraimites  coming  there  be  slain.  But  how  could 
it  be  found  out  who  were  Ephraimites?  They  were 
detected  by  their  pronunciation.  Shibboleth  was  a 
word  that  stood  for  river.  The  Ephraimites  had  a 
brogue  of  their  own,  and  when  they  tried  to  say 
shibboleth  always  left  out  the  sound  of  the  "  h." 
When  it  was  asked  that  they  say  shibboleth  they 
said  sibboleth,  and  were  slain.  "  Then  said  they 
unto  him,  say  now  shibboleth ;  and  he  said  sibboleth, 
lor  he  could  not  frame  to  pronounce  it  right.  Then 
they  took  him  and  slew  him  at  the  passages  of 
Jordan."  A  very  small  difference,  you  say,  between 
Gilead  and  Ephraim,  and  yet  how  much  intolerance 
about  that  small  difference  !  The  Lord's  tribes  in  our 

385  *5 


386  INTOLERANCE. 

time — by  which  1  mean  the  different  denominations 
of  Christians — sometimes  magnify  a  very  small  dif- 
ference, and  the  only  difference  between  scores  of 
denominations  to-day  is  the  difference  between  shib- 
boleth and  sibboleth.  The  church  of  God  is  divided 
into  a  great  number  of  denominations.  Time  would 
fail  me  to  tell  of  the  Calvinists,  and  the  Arminians, 
and  the  Sabbatarians,  and  the  Baxterians,  and  the 
Dunkers,  and  the  Shakers,  and  the  Quakers,  and  the 
Methodists,  and  the  Baptists,  and  the  Episcopalians, 
and  the  Lutherans,  and  the  Congregationalists,  and 
the  Presbyterians,  and  the  Spiritualists,  and  a  score 
of  other  denominations  of  religionists,  some  of  them 
founded  by  very  good  men,  some  of  them  founded 
by  very  egotistic  men,  some  of  them  founded  by 
very  bad  men.  But  as  I  demand  for  myself  liberty 
of  conscience,  I  must  give  that  same  liberty  to  every 
other  man,  remembering  that  he  no  more  differs  from 
me  than  I  differ  from  him.  I  advocate  the  largest 
liberty  in  all  religious  belief  and  form  of  worship. 
In  art,  in  politics,  in  morals,  and  in  religion,  let  there 
be  no  gag  law,  no  moving  of  the  previous  question, 
no  persecution,  no  intolerance. 

You  know  that  the  air  and  the  water  keep  pure  by 
constant  circulation,  and  I  think  there  is  a  tendency 
in  religious  discussion  to  purification  and  moral 
health.  Between  the  fourth  and  the  sixteenth  cen- 
turies the  Church  proposed  to  make  people  think 
aright  by  prohibiting  discussion,  and  by  strong  cen- 
sorship of  the  press,  and  rack,  and  gibbet,  aud  hot 
lead  down  the  throat,  tried  to  make  people  orthodox  ; 
but  it  was  discovered  that  you  cannot  change  a  man's 
belief  by  twisting  off  his  head,  or  that  you  can  make 
a  man  see  things  differently  by  putting  an  awl 


INTOLERANCE.  387 

through  his  eyes.  There  is  something  in  a  man's 
conscience  which  will  hurl  off  the  mountain  that  you 
threw  upon  it,  and,  unsinged  of  the  fire,  out  of  the 
flame  will  make  red  wings  on  which  the  martyr  will 
mount  to  glory. 

The  truth  will  conquer  just  as  certainly  as  that 
God  is  stronger  than  the  devil.  Let  Error  run,  if 
you  only  let  Truth  run  along  with  it.  Urged  on  by 
skeptic's  shout  and  transcendentalisms  spur,  let  it  run. 
God's  angels  of  wrath  are  in  hot  pursuit,  and  quicker 
than  eagle's  beak  clutches  out  a  hawk's  heart,  God's 
vengeance  will  tear  it  to  pieces, 

Bigotry  is  often  the  child  of  ignorance.  You  sel- 
dom find  a  man  with  large  intellect  who  is  a  bigot. 
It  is  the  man  who  thinks  he  knows  a  great  deal,  but 
does  not.  That  man  is  almost  always  a  bigot.  The 
whole  tendency  of  education  and  civilization  is  to 
bring  a  man  out  of  that  kind  of  state  of  mind  and 
heart.  There  was  in  the  far  East  a  great  obelisk, 
and  one  side  of  the  obelisk  was  white,  another  side 
of  the  obelisk  was  green,  another  side  of  the  obelisk 
was  blue,  and  travelers  went  and  looked  at  that  obe- 
lisk, but  they  did  not  walk  around  it.  One  man 
looked  at  one  side,  another  at  another  side,  and  they 
came  home  each  one  looking  at  only  one  side ;  and 
they  happened  to  meet,  the  story  says ;  and  they  got 
into  a  rank  quarrel  about  the  color  of  that  obelisk. 
One  man  said  it  was  white,  another  man  said  it  was 
green,  another  man  said  it  was  blue,  and  when  they 
were  in  the  very  heat  of  the  controversy  a  more  intel- 
ligent traveler  came,  and  said  :  "  Gentlemen,  I  have 
seen  that  obelisk,  and  you  are  all  right,  and 'you  are  all 
wrong.  Wliy  didn't  you  walk  all  round  the  obelisk?" 
Look  out  for  the  man  who  sees  only  one  side  of  a 


388  INTOLERANCE. 

religious  truth.  Look  out  for  the  man  who  never 
walks  around  about  these  great  theories  of  God  and 
eternity  and  the  dead.  He  will  be  a  bigot  inevitably 
— the  man  who  only  sees  one  side.  There  is  no  man 
more  to  be  pitied  than  he  who  has  in  his  head  just 
one  idea — no  more,  no  less.  More  light,  less  sec- 
tarianism. There  is  nothing  that  will  so  soon  kill 
bigotry  as  sunshine — God's  sunshine. 

So  I  have  set  before  you  what  I  consider  to  be  the 
causes  of  bigotry.  I  have  set  before  you  the  origin 
of  this  great  evil.  What  are  some  of  the  baleful 
effects?  First  of  all,  it  cripples  investigation.  You 
are  wrong,  and  I  am  right,  and  that  ends  it.  No  taste 
for  exploration,  no  spirit  of  investigation.  From  the 
glorious  realm  of  God's  truth,  over  which  an  arch- 
angel might  fly  from  eternity  to  eternity  and  not 
reach  the  limit,  the  man  shuts  himself  out  and  dies,  a 
blind  mole  under  a  corn-shock.  It  stops  all  inves- 
tigation. 

While  each  denomination  of  Christians  is  to  present 
all  the  truths  of  the  Bible,  it  seems  to  me  that  God 
has  given  to  each  denomination  an  especial  mission  to 
give  particular  emphasis  to  some  one  doctrine  ;  and  so 
the  Calvinistic  churches  must  present  the  sovereignty 
of  God,  and  the  Arminian  churches  must  present 
man's  free  agency,  and  the  Episcopal  churches  must 
present  the  importance  of  order  and  solemn  cere- 
mony, and  the  Baptist  churches  must  present  the  ne- 
cessity of  ordinances,  and  the  Congregational  Church 
must  present  the  responsibility  of  the  individual  mem- 
ber, and  the  Methodist  Church  must  show  what  holy 
enthusiasm  hearty  congregational  singing  can  ac- 
complish. While  each  denomination  of  Christians 
must  set  forth  all  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible,  I  feel 


INTOLERANCE.  389 

it  is  especially  incumbent  upon  each  denomination  to 
put  particular  emphasis  on  some  one  doctrine. 

Another  great  damage  done  by  the  sectarianism 
and  bigotry  of  the  church  is  that  it  disgusts  people 
with  the  Christian  religion.  Now,  my  friends,  the 
Church  of  God  was  never  intended  for  a  war  bar- 
rack. People  are  afraid  of  a  riot.  You  go  down  the 
street  and  you  see  an  excitement,  missiles  flying 
through  the  air,  and  you  hear  the  shocks  of  fire-arms. 
Do  you,  the  peaceful  and  industrious  citizen,  go 
through  that  street?  Oh,  no!  you  will  say,  "  I'll  go 
around  the  block."  Now,  men  come  and  look  upon 
this  narrow  path  to  heaven,  and  sometimes  see  the 
ecclesiastical  brickbats  flying  every  whither,  and  they 
say,  "  Well.  I  guess  I'll  take  the  broad  road ;  if  it  is  so 
rough,  and  there  is  so  much  sharp  shooting  on  the 
narrow  road,  I  guess  I'll  try  the  broad  road." 

Francis  I.  so  hated  the  Lutherans  that  he  said  if  he 
thought  there  was  one  drop  of  Lutheran  blood  in  his 
veins  he  would  puncture  them  and  let  that  drop  out. 
Just  as  long  as  there  is  so  much  hostility  between  de- 
nomination and  denomination,  or  between  one  pro- 
fessed Christian  and  another,  or  between  one  church 
and  another;  just  so  long  men  will  be  disgusted  with 
the  Christian  religion,  and  say,  "  If  that  is  religion,  I 
want  none  of  it." 

Bigotry  and  sectarianism  do  great  damage  in 
the  fact  that  they  hinder  the  triumph  of  the  Gos- 
pel. Oh,  how  much  wasted  ammunition,  how  many 
men  of  splendid  intellect  have  given  their  whole 
life  to  controversial  disputes,  when,  if  they  had 
given  their  life  to  something  practical,  they  might 
have  been  vastly  useful!  Suppose  there  were  a 
common  enemy  coming  up  the  bav  through  the 


390  INTOLKRANCK. 

Narrows,  and  all  the  forts  around  New  York  be- 
gan to  fire  into  each  other — you  would  cry  out, 
•'  National  suicide!  why  don't  those  forts  blaze  away 
in  one  direction,  and  that  against  the  common 
enemy?  "  And  yet  I  sometimes  see  in  the  Church  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  a  strange  thing  going  on : 
Church  against  Church,  minister  against  minister, 
denomination  against  denomination,  firing  away  into 
their  own  fort,  or  the  fort  which  ought  to  be  on  the 
same  side,  instead  of  concentrating  their  energy,  and 
giving  one  mighty  and  everlasting  volley  against  the 
navies  of  darkness,  riding  up  through  the  bay ! 

I  go  out  sometimes  in  the  summer,  and  t  find  two 
beehives,  and  these  two  hives  are  in  a  quarrel.  I 
come  near-  enough,  not  to  be  stung,  but  I  come  just 
near  enough  to  hear  the  controversy,  and  one  bee- 
hive says,  "  That  field  of  clover  is  the  sweetest,"  and 
another  beehive  says,  "  That  field  of  clover  is  the 
sweetest."  I  come  in  between  them,  and  I  say, 
"Stop  this  quarrel;  if  you  like  that  field  of  clover 
best,  go  there ;  if  you  like  that  field  of  clover  best, 
go  there  ;  but  let  me  tell  you  that  that  hive  which 
gets  the  most  honey  is  the  best  hive.''  So  I  come 
out  between  the  Churches  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
One  denomination  of  Christians  says,  "  That  field  of 
Christian  doctrine  is  best,"  and  another  says,  "  This 
field  of  Christian  doctrine  is  best."  Well,  I  say,  "Go 
where  you  get  the  most  honey."  That  is  the  best 
church  which  gets  the  most  honey  of  Christian 
grace  for  the  heart,  and  the  most  honey  of  Christian 
usefulness  for  the  life. 

Beside  that,  if  you  want  to  build  up  any  denomi- 
nation, you  will  never  build  it  up  by  trying  to  pull 
some  other  down.  Intolerance  never  put  anything 


INTOLERANCE.  3QI 

down.  How  much  has  Intolerance  accomplished, 
for  instance,  against  the  Methodist  Church  ?  For 
long  years  her  ministry  were  forbidden  the  pulpits  of 
Great  Britain.  Why  was  it  that  so  many  of  them 
preached  in  the  fields  ?  Simply  because  they  could 
not  get  in  the  churches.  And  the  name  of  the 
Church  was  given  in  derision  and  as  a  sarcasm.  The 
critics  of  the  Church  said,  "  They  have  no  order, 
they  have  no  method  in  their  worship ; ''  and  the 
critics,  therefore,  in  irony  called  them  "  Methodists." 

I  am  told  that  in  Astor  Library,  New  York,  kept 
as  curiosities,  there  are  seven  hundred  and  seven 
books  and  pamphlets  against  Methodism.  Did  Intol- 
erance stop  that  church  ?  No ;  it  is  either  first  or 
second  amid  the  denominations  of  Christendom,  her 
missionary  stations  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  her  men 
not  only  important  in  religious  trusts,  but  important 
also  in  secular  trusts.  Church  marching  on,  and  the 
more  intolerance  against  it,  the  faster  it  marched. 

What  did  Intolerance  accomplish  against  the  Bap- 
tist Church?  If  laughing  scorn  and  tirade  could 
have  destroyed  the  church  it  would  not  have  to-day 
a  disciple  left. 

The  Baptists  were  hurled  out  of  Boston  in  olden 
times.  Those  who  sympathized  with  them  were  con- 
fined, and  when  a  petition  was  offered  asking  leniency 
in  their  behalf,  all  the  men  who  signed  it  were  in- 
dicted. Has  Intolerance  stopped  the  Baptist  Church  ? 
The  last  statistics  in  regard  to  it  showed  twenty  thou- 
sand churches  and  two  million  communicants.  Intol- 
erance never  put  down  anything. 

In  England  a  law  was  made  against  the  Jew.  Eng* 
land  thrust  back  the  Jew  and  thrust  down  the  Jew, 
and  declared  that  no  Jew  should  hold  official  posi- 


392  INTOLERANCE. 

tion.  \Vhatcameofit?  Were  the  Jews  destroyed? 
Was  their  religion  overthrown?  No.  Who  became 
Prime  Minister  of  England  only  a  little  while  ago? 
Who  was  next  to  the  throne  ?  who  was  higher  than 
the  throne  because  he  was  counsellor  and  adviser? 
Disraeli,  a  Jew.  What  were  we  celebrating  in  all 
our  churches  as  well  as  synagogues  only  a  few  weeks 
ago?  The  one  hundredth  birthday  anniversary  of 
Montefiore,  the  great  Jewish  philanthropist.  Intoler- 
ance never  yet  put  down  anything. 

Having  shown  you  the  origin  of  bigotry  or  sec- 
tarianism, and  having  shown  you  the  damage  it  does, 
I  want  briefly  to  show  you  how  we  are  to  war 
against  this  terrible  evil,  and  I  think  we  ought  to 
begin  our  war  by  realizing  our  own  weakness  and 
our  imperfections.  If  we  make  so  many  mistakes  in 
the  common  affairs  of  life,  is  it  not  possible  that  we 
may  make  mistakes  in  regard  to  our  religious  affairs? 
Shall  we  take  a  man  by  the  throat,  or  by  the  collar, 
because  he  can  not  see  religious  truths  just  as  we  do? 
In  the  light  of  eternity  it  will  be  found  out,  I  think, 
there  was  something  wrong  in  all  our  creeds,  and 
something  right  in  all  our  creeds.  But  since  we 
may  make  mistakes  in  regard  to  things  of  the  world, 
do  not  let  us  be  so  egotistic  and  so  puffed  up  as  to 
have  an  idea  that  we  can  not  make  any  mistakes  in 
regard  to  religious  theories.  And  then  I  think  we 
will  do  a  great  deal  to  overthrow  the  sectarianism 
from  our  heart,  and  the  sectarianism  from  the  world, 
by  chiefly  enlarging  in  those  things  in  which  we 
agree,  rather  than  those  on  which  we  differ. 

Now,  here  is  a  great  Gospel  platform.  "A  man 
comes  up  on  this  side  the  platform,  and  says :  "I 
don't  believe  in  baby  sprinkling."  Shall  I  shove  him 


INTOLERANCE.  393 

off?  Here  is  a  man  coming  up  on  this  side  the  plat- 
form, and  he  says:  "I  don't  believe  in  the  persever- 
ance of  the  saints."  Shall  I  shove  him  off?  No.  I 
will  say  :  "Do  you  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  as  your 
Saviour?  do  you  trust  Him  for  time  and  eternity?" 
He  says,  "Yes."  "Do  you  take  Christ  for  time  and 
for  eternity?"  "Yes."  I  say:  "Come  on,  brother; 
one  in  time  and  one  in  eternity  ;  brother  now,  brother 
forever."  Blessed  be  God  for  a  Gospel  platform  so 
large  that  all  who  receive  Christ  may  stand  on  it ! 

I  think  we  may  overthrow  the  severe  sectarianism 
and  bigotry  in  our  hearts,  and  in  the  church  also,  by 
realizing  that  all  the  denominations  of  Christians 
have  yielded  noble  institutions  and  noble  men. 
There  is  nothing  that  so  stirs  my  soul  as  this  thought. 
One  denomination  yielded  a  Robert  Hall  and  an 
Adoniram  Judson  ;  another  yielded  a  Latimer  and  a 
Melville;  another  yielded  John  Wesley  and  the 
blessed  Summerfield,  while  our  own  denomination 
yielded  John  Knox  and  the  Alexanders — men  of 
whom  the  world  was  not  worthy.  Now,  I  say,  if  we 
are  honest  and  fair-minded  men,  when  we  come  up  in 
the  presence  of  such  churches  and  such  denomi- 
nations, although  they  may  be  different  from  our 
own,  we  ought  to  admire  them,  and  we  ought  to  love 
and  honor  them.  Churches  which  can  produce  such 
men,  and  such  large-hearted  charity,  and  such  mag- 
nificent martyrdom,  ought  to  win  our  affection — at 
any  rate,  our  respect.  So,  come  on,  ye  ninety-five 
thousand  Episcopalians  in  this  country,  and  ye  four 
hundred  thousand  Presbyterians,  and  ye  nine  hun- 
dred thousand  Baptists,  and  ye  two  million  Metho- 
dists— come  on;  shoulder  to  shoulder  we  will  march 
for  the  world's  conquest ;  for  all  nations  are  to  be 


394  INTOLERANCE. 

saved,  and  God  demands  that  you  and  I  help  do  it. 
Forward,  the  whole  line  ! 

Moreover,  we  may  also  overthrow  the  feeling  of 
severe  sectarianism  by  joining  other  denominations 
in  Christian  work.  I  like  when  the  springtime 
comes  and  the  anniversary  occasions  begin,  and  all 
denominations  come  upon  the  same  platform.  That 
overthrows  sectarianism  in  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association,  in  the  Bible  Societv,  in  the  Tract 
Society,  in  the  Foreign  Missionary  Society  shoulder 
to  shoulder,  all  denominations. 

Perhaps  I  might  more  forcibly  illustrate  this  truth 
by  calling  your  attention  to  an  incident  which  took 
place  four  or  five  or  six  years  ago.  One  Monday 
morning  at  about  two  o'clock,  while  her  nine  hun- 
dred passengers  were  sound  asleep  in  her  berths 
dreaming  of  home,  the  steamer  Atlantic  crashed  into 
Mars  Head.  Five  hundred  souls  in  ten  minutes 
landed  in  eternity  !  Oh,  what  a  scene  !  Agonized  men 
and  women  running  up  and  down  the  gangways,  and 
clutching  for  the  rigging,  and  the  plunge  of  the  help- 
less steamer,  and  the  clapping  of  the  hands  of  the 
merciless  sea  over  the  drowning  and  the  dead,  threw 
two  continents  into  terror.  But  see  this  brave  quar- 
termaster pushing  out  with  the  life-line  until  he  gets 
to  the  rock ;  and  see  these  fishermen  gathering  up 
the  shipwrecked,  and  taking  them  into  the  cabins, 
and  wrapping  them  in  the  flannels  snug  and  warm; 
and  see  that  minister  of  the  Gospel,  with  three  other 
men,  getting  into  a  life-boat  and  pushing  out  for  the 
wreck,  pulling  away  across  the  surf,  and  pulling 
away  until  they  saved  one  more  man,  and  then 
getting  back  with  him  to  the  shore.  Can  those 
men  ever  forget  that  night?  And  can  they  ever  for- 


INTOLERANCE.  395 

get  their  companionship  in  peril,  companionship  in 
struggle,  companionship  in  awful  catastrophe  and 
rescue?  Never!  Never!  In  whatever  part  of  the 
earth  they  meet,  they  will  be  friends  when  they  men- 
tion the  story  of  that  awful  night  when  the  Atlantic 
struck  Mars  Head. 

Well,  my  friends,  our  world  has  gone  into  a  worse 
shipwreck.  Sin  drove  it  on  the  rocks.  The  old  ship 
has  lurched  and  tossed  in  the  tempests  of  six  thou- 
sand years.  Out  with  the  life-line !  I  do  not  care 
what  denomination  carries  it.  Out  with  the  life- 
boat !  I  do  not  care  what  denomination  rows  it. 
Side  by  side,  in  the  memory  of  common  hardships, 
and  common  trials,  and  common  prayers,  and  com- 
mon tears,  let  us  be  brothers  forever.  We  must  be 
We  must  be. 

"  Our  army  of  the  living  God, 

To  whose  command  we  bow ; 
Part  of  the  host  have  crossed  the  flood. 
And  part  are  crossing  now." 

And  I  expect  to  see  the  day  when  all  denomina* 
tions  of  Christians  shall  join  hands  around  the  cross 
of  Christ  and  recite  the  creed  :  "  I  believe  in  God  the 
Father  Almighty,  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  in 
Jesus  Christ,  and  in  the  communion  of  Saints,  and  in 
the  life  everlasting."  May  God  inspire  us  all  with 
the  largest-hearted  Christian  charity. 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

THE    WITNESS-STAND. 

In  the  days  of  George  Stephenson,  the  perfecter 
of  the  locomotive  engine,  the  scientists  proved  con- 
clusively that  a  railway  train  could  never  be  driven 
by  steam-power  successfully,  and  without  peril ;  but 
the  rushing  express  trains  from  Liverpool  to  Edin- 
burgh, and  from  Edinburgh  to  London,  have  made 
all  the  nations  witnesses  of  the  splendid  achievements. 
Machinists  and  navigators  proved  conclusively  that 
a  steamer  could  never  cross  the  Atlantic  Ocean  ;  but 
no  sooner  had  they  successfully  proved  the  impossi- 
bility of  such  an  undertaking  than  the  work  was 
done,  and  the  passengers  on  the  Cunard,  and  the 
Inman,  and  the  National,  and  the  White  Star  lines 
are  witnesses.  There  went  up  a  guffaw  of  wise 
laughter  at  Professor  Morse's  proposition  to  make 
the  lightning  of  heaven  his  errand-boy,  and  it  was 
proved  conclusively  that  the  thing  could  never  be 
done ;  but  now  all  the  news  of  the  wide  world,  by 
Associated  Press  put  in  your  hands  every  morning 
and  night,  has  made  all  nations  witnesses. 

So  in  the  time  of  Christ  it  was  proved  conclusively 
that  it  was  impossible  for  Him  to  rise  from  the  dead. 
It  was  shown  logically  that  when  a  man  was  dead, 
he  was  dead,  and  the  heart  and  the  liver  and  the 
lungs  having  ceased  to  perform  their  offices,  the 
limbs  would  be  rigid  beyond  all  power  of  friction  or 

396 


THE  AGONY  IN  THE  GABDEN. 


THE   WITNESS-STAND.  397 

arousal.  They  showed  it  to  be  an  absolute  absurdity 
that  the  dead  Christ  should  ever  get  up  alive ;  but 
no  sooner  had  they  proved  this  than  the  dead  Christ 
arose,  and  the  disciples  beheld  Him,  heard  His  voice, 
and  talked  with  Him,  and  they  took  the  witness-stand 
to  prove  that  to  be  true  which  the  wiseacres  of  the 
day  had  proved  to  be  impossible ;  the  record  of  the 
experiment  and  of  the  testimony  is :  "  Him  hath 
God  raised  from  the  dead,  whereof  we  are  witnesses." 

Now,  let  me  play  the  skeptic  for  a  moment. 

"  There  is  no  God,"  says  the  skeptic,  "  for  I  have 
never  seen  Him  with  my  physical  eyesight.  Your 
Bible  is  a  pack  of  contradictions.  There  never  was 
a  miracle.  Lazarus  was  not  raised  from  the  dead, 
and  the  water  was  never  turned  into  wine.  Your 
religion  is  an  imposition  on  the  credulity  of  the 
ages." 

The  fact  is,  that  if  this  world  is  ever  brought  to 
God,  it  will  not  be  through  argument,  but  through 
testimony.  You  might  cover  the  whole  earth  with 
apologies  for  Christianity  and  learned  treatises  in 
defense  of  religion — you  would  not  convert  a  soul. 
Lectures  on  the  harmony  between  science  and  reli- 
gion are  beautiful  mental  discipline,  but  have  never 
saved  a  soul,  and  never  will  save  a  soul.  Put  a  man 
of  the  world  and  a  man  of  the  Church  against  each 
other,  and  the  man  of  the  world  will  in  all  probability 
get  the  triumph.  There  are  a  thousand  things  in 
our  religion  that  seem  illogical  to  the  world,  and 
always  will  seem  illogical 

Our  weapon  in  this  conflict  is  faith,  not  logic  ;  faith, 
not  metaphysics ;  faith,  not  profundity  ;  faith,  not 
scholastic  exploration.  But  then,  in  order  to  have 
faith,  we  must  have  testimony,  and  if  five  hundred 


398  THE   WITNESS-STAND. 

men,  or  one  thousand  men,  or  five  hundred  thousand 
men,  or  five  million  men  get  up  and  tell  me  that  they 
have  felt  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  a  joy,  a  com- 
fort, a  help,  an  aspiration,  I  am  bound  as  a  fair- 
minded  man  to  accept  their  testimony. 

We  are  witnesses  that  the  religion  of  Christ  is  able 
to  convert  a  soul. 

The  Gospel  may  have  had  a  hard  time  to  conquer 
us,  we  may  have  fought  it  back,  but  we  were  van- 
quished. You  say  conversion  is  only  an  imaginary 
thing.  We  know  better.  "  We  are  witnesses." 
There  never  was  so  great  a  change  in  our  heart  and 
life  on  any  other  subject  as  on  this.  People  laughed 
at  the  missionaries  in  Madagascar  because  they 
preached  ten  years  without  one  convert;  but  there 
are  33,000  converts  in  Madagascar  to-day.  People 
laughed  at  Doctor  Judson,  the  Baptist  missionary, 
becai-se  he  kept  on  preaching  in  Burmah  five  years 
without  a  single  convert ;  but  there  are  20,000  Bap- 
tists in  Burmah  to-day.  People  laughed  at  Doctor 
Morrison,  in  China,  for  preaching  there  seven  years 
without  a  single  conversion;  bnt  there  are  15,000 
Christians  in  China  to-day.  People  laughed  at  the 
missionaries  for  preaching  at  Tahiti  fifteen  years 
without  a  single  conversion,  and  at  the  missionaries 
for  preaching  in  Bengal  seventeen  years  without  a 
single  conversion ;  yet  in  all  those  lands  there  are 
multitudes  of  Christians  to-day. 

But  why  go  so  far  to  find  evidence  of  the  Gospel's 
power  to  save  a  soul?  "We  are  witnesses."  We 
were  so  proud  that  no  man  could  have  humbled  us; 
we  were  so  hard  that  no  earthly  power  could  have 
melted  us;  angels  of  God  were  all  around  about  us, 
they  could  not  overcome  us;  but  one  day,  perhaps  at 


THE   WITNESS-STAND.  399 

a  Methodist  anxious  seat,  or  at  a  Presbyterian  cate- 
chetical lecture,  or  at  a  burial,  or  on  horseback,  a 
power  seized  us,  and  made  us  get  down,  and  made  us 
tremble,  and  made  us  kneel,  and  made  us  cry  for 
mercy,  and  we  tried  to  wrench  ourselves  away  from 
the  grasp,  but  we  could  not.  It  flung  us  flat,  and 
when  we  arose  we  were  as  much  changed  as 
Gourgis,  the  heathen,  who  went  into  a  prayer- 
meeting  with  a  dagger  and  a  gun,  to  disturb  the 
meeting  and  destroy  it,  but  the  next  day  was  found 
crying,  "  Oh  !  my  great  sins !  Oh  !  my  great  Sav- 
iour!"  and  for  eleven  years  preached  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  to  his  fellow-mountaineers,  the  last  words  an 
his  dying  lips  being,  "  Free  grace  !  "  Oh,  it  was  free 
grace ! 

There  is  a  man  who  was  for  ten  years  a  hard 
drinker.  The  dreadful  appetite  had  sent  down  its 
roots  around  the  palate  and  the  tongue,  and  on  down 
until  they  were  interlinked  with  the  vitals  of  body, 
mind,  and  soul ;  but  he  has  not  taken  any  stimulants 
for  two  years.  What  did  that?  Not  temperance 
societies.  Not  prohibition  laws.  Not  moral  suasion. 
Conversion  did  it.  "  Why,"  said  one  upon  whom  the 
great  change  had  come,  "  sir,  I  feel  just  as  though  I 
were  somebody  else." 

There  is  a  sea-captain  who  swore  all  the  way  from 
New  York  to  Havana,  and  from  Havana  to  San 
Francisco,  and  when  he  was  in  port  he  was  worse 
than  when  he  was  on  the  sea.  What  power  was  it 
that  washed  his  tongue  clean  of  profanities,  and  made 
him  a  psalm-singer?  Conversion  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 

We  are  witnesses  of  the  Gospel's  power  to  com- 
fort. 

When  a  man  has  trouble,  the  world  comes  in  and 


400  THE   WITNESS-STAND. 

says:  "Now  get  your  mind  off  this;  go  out  and 
breathe  the  fresh  air ;  plunge  deeper  into  business." 
What  poor  advice.  Get  your  mind  off  of  it!  When 
everything  is  upturned  with  the  bereavement,  and 
everything  reminds  you  of  what  you  have  lost.  Get 
your  mind  off  of  it !  They  might  as  well  advise  you 
to  stop  thinking.  You  can  not  stop  thinking,  and 
you  can  not  stop  thinking  in  that  direction.  Take  a 
walk  in  the  fresh  air !  Why,  along  that  very  street, 
or  that  very  road,  she  once  accompanied  you.  Out 
of  that  grass-plat  she  plucked  flowers,  or  into  that 
show-window  she  looked,  fascinated,  saying,  "Come 
see  the  pictures."  Go  deeper  into  business  !  Why, 
she  was  associated  with  all  your  business  ambition, 
and  since  she  has  gone  \~ou  have  no  ambition  left. 

Oh,  this  is  a  clumsy  world  when  it  tries  to  comfort 
a  broken  heart.  I  can  build  a  Corliss  engine,  I  can 
paint  a  Raphael's  "  Madonna,"  I  can  play  a  Beetho- 
ven's "  Eroica  Symphony,"  as  easily  as  this  world 
can  comfort  a  broken  heart.  And  yet  you  have  been 
comforted.  How  was  it  done  ?  Did  Christ  come  to 
you  and  say :  "  Get  your  mind  off  this ;  go  out  and 
breathe  the  fresh  air;  plunge  deeper  into  business?" 
No.  There  was  a  minute  when  He  came  to  you — 
perhaps  in  the  watches  of  the  night,  perhaps  in  your 
place  of  business,  perhaps  along  the  street — and  He 
breathed  something  into  your  soul  that  gave  peace, 
rest,  infinite  quiet,  so  that  you  could  take  out  the 
photograph  of  the  departed  one  and  look  into  the 
eyes  and  the  face  of  the  dear  one,  and  say  :  "It  is  all 
right ;  she  is  better  off ;  I  would  not  call  her  back. 
Lord,  I  thank  Thee  that  Thou  hast  comforted  my 
poor  heart." 

There  are  Christian    parents  who  are   willing  to 


THE   WITNESS-STAND.  401 

testify  to  the  power  of  this  Gospel  to  comfort.  Your 
son  had  just  graduated  from  school  or  college  and 
was  going  into  business,  and  the  Lord  took  him.  Or 
your  daughter  had  just  graduated  from  the  young 
ladies'  seminary,  and  you  thought  she  was  going  to 
be  a  useful  woman,  and  of  long  life  ;  but  the  Lord 
took  her,  and  you  were  tempted  to  say,  "  All  this  cul- 
ture of  twenty  years  for  nothing!"  Or  the  little 
child  came  home  from  school  with  the  hot  fever  that 
stopped  not  for  the  agonized  prayer  or  for  the  skilful 
physician,  and  the  little  child  was  taken.  Or  the 
babe  was  lifted  out  of  your  arms  by  some  quick 
epidemic,  and  you  stood  wondering  why  God  ever 
gave  you  that  child  at  all,  if  so  soon  He  was  to  take 
it  away.  And  yet  you  are  not  repining,  you  are  not 
fretful,  you  are  not  fighting  against  God. 

What  has  enabled  you  to  stand  all  the  trial?  "Oh," 
you  say, "  I  took  the  medicine  that  God  gave  my  sick 
soul.  In  my  distress  I  threw  myself  at  the  feet  of  a 
sympathizing  God ;  and  when  I  was  too  weak  to  pray 
or  to  look  up,  He  breathed  into  me  a  peace  that  I 
think  must  be  the  foretaste  of  that  heaven  where 
there  is  neither  a  tear,  nor  a  farewell,  nor  a  grave." 
Come,  all  ye  who  have  been  out  to  the  grave  to  weep 
there — come,  all  ye  comforted  souls,  get  up  off  your 
knees.  Is  there  no  power  in  this  Gospel  to  soothe 
the  heart  ?  Is  there  no  power  in  this  religion  to  quiet 
the  worst  paroxysm  of  grief  ?  There  comes  up  an 
answer  from  comforted  widowhood,  and  orphanage, 
and  childlessness,  saying,  "  Aye,  aye,  we  are  wit- 
nesses." 

We  are  witnesses  of  the  fact  that  religion  has 
power  to  give  composure  in  the  last  moment.  I  never 
shall  forget  the  first  time  I  confronted  death.  We 

26 


402  THE   WITNESS-STAND. 

went  across  the  cornfields  in  the  country.  I  was  led 
by  mv  father's  hand,  and  we  came  to  the  farmhouse 
where  the  bereavement  had  come,  and  we  saw  the 
crowd  of  wagons  and  carriages ;  but  there  was  one 
carriage  that  especially  attracted  my  boyish  attention, 
and  it  had  black  plumes.  I  said,  "What's  that?  what's 
that?  Why  those  black  tassels  at  the  top?"  and  after 
ft  was  explained  to  me,  I  was  lifted  up  to  look  upon 
the  bright  face  of  an  aged  Christian  woman  who  three 
days  before  had  departed  in  triumph  ;  the  whole 
scene  made  an  impression  I  never  forgot. 

I  want  to  know  if  you  have  ever  seen  anything  to 
make  you  believe  that  the  religion  of  Christ  can  give 
composure  in  the  final  hour.  Now,  in  the  courts,  at- 
torney, jury  and  judge  will  never  admit  mere  hear- 
say. They  demand  that  the  witness  must  have  seen 
with  his  own  eyes,  or  heard  with  his  own  ears,  and 
so  1  am  critical  in  my  examination  of  you  now  ;  and 
I  want  to  know  whether  you  have  seen  or  heard  any- 
thing that  makes  you  believe  that  the  religion  of 
Christ  gives  composure  in  the  final  hour. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  you  say,  "  I  saw  my  father  and  mother 
depart.  There  was  a  great  difference  in  their  death- 
beds. Standing  by  the  one  we  felt  more  veneration. 
By  the  other  there  was  more  tenderness."  Before 
the  one  you  bowed  perhaps,  in  awe.  In  the  other 
case  you  felt  as  if  you  would  like  to  go  along  with 
her. 

How  did  they  feel  in  that  last  hour?  How  did 
they  seem  to  act  ?  Were  they  very  much  frightened  ? 
Did  they  take  hold  of  this  world  with  both  hands,  as 
though  they  did  not  want  to  give  it  up?  "  Oh,  no," 
you  say,  "  no,  I  remember,  as  though  it  were  yester- 
day ;  she  had  a  kind  word  for  us  all,  and  there  were  a 


THE  WITNESS-STAND.  403 

few  mementoes  distributed  among  the  children,  and 
then  she  told  us  how  kind  we  must  be  to  our  father 
in  his  loneliness,  and  then  she  kissed  us  good-bye  and 
went  asleep  as  calmly  as  a  child  in  a  cradle." 

What  made  her  so  composed  ?  Natural  courage  ? 
"No,"  you  say,  "mother  was  very  nervous;  when 
the  carriage  inclined  to  the  side  of  the  road,  she 
would  cry  out ;  she  was  always  rather  weakly." 
What,  then,  gave  her  composure  ?  Was  it  because 
she  did  not  care  much  for  you,  and  the  pang  of  part, 
ing  was  not  great  ?  "  Oh,"  you  say,  "  she  showered 
upon  us  a  wealth  of  affection  ;  no  mother  ever  loved 
her  children  more  than  mother  loved  us ;  she  showed 
it  by  the  way  she  nursed  us  when  we  were  sick,  and 
she  toiled  for  us  until  her  strength  gave  out."  What 
then,  was  it  that  gave  her  composure  in  the  last 
hour?  Do  not  hide  it.  Be  frank,  and  let  me  know. 
"  Oh,"  you  say,  "  it  was  because  she  was  so  good  ; 
she  made  the  Lord  her  portion,  and  she  had  faith 
that  she  would  go  straight  to  glory,  and  that  we 
should  all  meet  her  at  last  at  the  foot  of  the  throne." 

Here  are  people  who  say,  "  I  saw  a  Christian 
brother  die,  and  he  triumphed."  And  some  one  else, 
"  I  saw  a  Christian  sister  die,  and  she  triumphed." 
Some  one  else  will  say,  "  I  saw  a  Christian  daughter 
die,  and  she  triumphed."  Come,  all  ye  who  have 
seen  the  last  moments  of  a  Christian,  and  give  testi- 
mony in  this  cause  on  trial.  Uncover  your  heads, 
put  your  hand  on  the  old  family  Bible  from  which 
they  used  to  read  the  promises,  and  promise  in  the 
presence  of  high  heaven  that  you  will  tell  the  truth, 
the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth.  With 
what  you  have  seen  with  your  own  eyes,  and  from 
what  you  have  heard  with  your  own  ears,  is  there 


404  THE   WITNESS-STAND. 

power  in  this  Gospel  to  give  calmness  and  triumph 
in  the  last  exigency?  The  response  conies  from  all 
sides,  from  young,  and  old,  and  middle-aged  :  "  We 
are  witnesses !  " 


CHAPTER  XLII. 

GOSPEL    LOOKING-GLASS. 

We  often  hear  about  the  Gospel  of  John,  and  the 
Gospel  of  Matthew,  and  the  Gospel  of  Luke.  There 
is  just  as  certainly  a  Gospel  of  Moses,  a  Gospel  of 
David,  a  Gospel  of  Jeremiah.  In  other  words,  Christ 
is  as  certainly  in  the  Old  Testament  as  in  the  New. 
If,  after  one  has  departed,  we  want  to  get  an  idea  of 
just  how  he  looked,  we  gather  up  all  the  photographs 
— some  taken  from  one  side  the  face,  others  from  the 
other  side  the  face,  some  the  full  face,  some  the  full- 
length  portrait,  and  then  from  all  these  pictures  we 
recall  to  our  mind  just  how  the  departed  one  looked. 
And  I  want  all  the  pictures  of  the  evangelists  and  all 
the  pictures  of  (the  prophets  to  bring  before  me  the 
image  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  want  to  know  just  how  He 
looked,  and  the  more  pictures  I  have  of  Him  the 
better  I  shall  understand. 

When  the  Israelites  were  on  their  march  through 
the  wilderness  they  carried  their  church  with  them. 
They  had  what  they  called  a  tabernacle,  a  pitched 
tent.  It  was  very  costly  and  very  beautiful.  The 
framework  was  made  out  of  forty-eight  boards  of 
acacia  wood,  set  in  sockets  of  silver.  The  curtains 
of  the  building  were  of  purple  and  scarlet  and  blue 
and  fine  linen,  and  they  were  hung  on  artistic  loops. 
The  candlestick  had  a  shaft  and  branches  and  bowls 
of  gold,  and  there  were  lamps  of  gold,  and  tongs  of 
gold,  and  snuffers  of  gold,  and  rings  of  gold. 

405 


406  GOSPEL    LOOKING-GLASS. 

Now,  there  is  one  thing  in  this  ancient  tabernacle 
that  especially  attracts  my  attention,  and  that  is  the 
laver.  It  was  a  great  basin  filled  with  water,  and 
the  water  went  down  through  spouts  and  passed 
away,  and  the  priests  came  and  washed  their  hands 
and  their  feet  as  this  water  came  down  through  the 
spouts  and  passed  away.  The  laver  was  made  out 
of  the  looking-glasses  of  the  women  who  had  fre- 
quented the  tabernacle,  and  who  had  made  that 
contribution  to  the  furniture.  The  looking-glasses 
were  not  made  out  of  glass,  but  of  brass  of  a  superior 
quality,  polished  and  burnished,  until  just  as  soon  as 
a  priest  looked  into  the  side  of  the  laver  he  saw  his 
every  feature  and  any  spot  of  defilement  that  may 
have  been  on  his  countenance  ;  so  that  this  laver  of 
looking-glasses  had  two  purposes;  the  first,  to  show 
those  who  came  up  the  defilement  upon  themselves, 
and  secondly,  to  offer  them  a  place  where  they  could 
get  rid  of  it.  And  as  everything  in  the  ancient 
tabernacle  was  typical  of  something  in  the  Gospel  of 
the  Son  of  God,  or,  at  any  rate,  suggestive  of  it,  1 
take  this  laver  of  looking-glasses  as  all  suggestive  of 
this  Gospel,  which  first  shows  me  sin,  and  then  gives 
me  an  opportunity  of  divine  ablution. 

"  Oh,  happy  day,  happy  day, 
When  Jesus  washed  my  sins  away !" 

This  is  the  only  mirror,  the  burnished  side  of  this 
laver  is  the  only  mirror — that  shows  you  just  as  you 
are.  Some  mirrors  Hatter  the  features,  and  they 
make  you  look  better  than  you  are.  Some  mirrors 
distort  the  features,  and  they  make  you  look  worse 
than  you  are.  This  mirror — this  mirror  of  God's 
Word— shows  you  just  as  you  are.  These  priests 
would  come  in,  and  just  as  soon  as  they  confronted 


GOSPEL   LOOKING-GLASS.  407 

the  burnished,  polished  side  of  this  looking-glass, 
this  metal  out  of  which  the  laver  was  made,  he  saw 
where  there  was  any  pollution  upon  his  counte- 
nance, where  there  was  any  spot  that  needed  to  be 
cleaned  off. 

Just  as  soon  as  we  come  in  and  look  at  this  mirror 
of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  we  see  ourselves  just 
as  we  are.  "All  have  sinned  and  come  short  of  the 
glory  of  God."  That  is  one  showing.  "All  we,  like 
sheep,  have  gone  astray."  That  is  another  showing. 
"  From  the  crown  of  the  head  to  the  sole  of  the  foot 
there  is  no  health  in  us."  That  is  another  showing. 
Some  people  call  these  defects  imperfections,  or  ec- 
centricities, or  erratic  behavior,  or  wild  oats,  or  high 
living  ;  but  this  Book  calls  them  filth,  transgression, 
the  abominable  thing  that  God  hates.  Paul  got  one 
glance  at  that  mirror— that  polished  mirror — and  he 
cried  out :  "Oh,  wretched  man  that  I  am,  who  shall 
deliver  me?"  David  caught  one  glimpse  of  that 
mirror,  and  he  cried  out ;  "  Purge  me  with  hyssop, 
and  I  shall  be  clean ! "  Martin  Luther  got  one 
glimpse  of  that  mirror,  and  he  cried  out  to  Staupitz : 
"Oh,  my  sins,  my  sins,  my  sins  !  « 

Mind  you,  I  am  not  talking  about  bad  habits.  We 
do  not  need  any  Bible  to  persuade  us  that  blasphemy 
is  wrong,  or  impure  life  is  wrong,  or  evil  speaking  is 
wrong.  1  am  now  talking  of  the  heart,  the  evil 
heart,  the  fountain  of  bad  thoughts,  of  bad  words,  of 
bad  actions.  Here  is  ingratitude,  for  instance.  If 
you  hand  me  a  glass  of  water,  I  say,  "  Thank  you." 
If  I  hand  you  a  glass  of  water,  you  say,  "Thank 
you."  But  here  we  have  been  taking  ten  thousand 
mercies  from  the  hand  of  God — our  hunger  fed,  our 
thirst  slaked,  and  we  have  had  shelter  and  home,  and 


408  GOSPEL   LOOKING-GLASS. 

ten  thousand  blessings  and  advantages,  and  yet  I  do 
not  state  a  thing  that  you  will  not  believe  when  I 
say  that  there  are  people  in  this  house  this  morning 
fifty  years  of  age  who  have  never  got  down  once  on 
their  knees  and  thanked  God  for  his  goodness.  And 
here  is  pride  of  heart.  Oh,  we  all  have  felt  it,  the 
pride  that  will  not  submit  to  God.  Pride  wants  its 
own  way.  I  will  not  quarrel  with  theologians  about 
terms.  I  do  not  care  whether  you  call  it  total  de- 
pravity, or  whether  you  call  it  something  else.  This 
evil  nature  we  got  from  our  parents,  and  they  got  it 
from  their  parents,  and  it  goes  down  from  generation 
to  generation — a  nature  obnoxious  to  God  before 
conversion,  and  after  conversion  there  is  not  one  in 
any  of  us  except  that  which  the  grace  of  God  planted 
and  fostered  and  keeps. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  reason  there  are  compar- 
atively so  few  conversions  in  our  day,  is  to  be  found 
in  the  fact  that  the  preaching  of  our  day  is  so  apt  to 
persuade  a  man  that  he  is  almost  right  anyhow,  he 
only  needs  a  little  fixing  up,  he  only  needs  a  few 
touches  of  divine  grace,  and  then  he  will  be  all  right ; 
only  a  little  out  of  order ;  only  a  little  repair  neces- 
sary to  our  nature,  instead  of  the  broad,  deep  talk, 
which  Baxter,  and  Payson,  and  Wesley,  and  George 
Whitefield  thundered  in  the  ears  of  a  race  trembling 
on  the  verge  of  instant  and  eternal  disaster.  Ah !  my 
friends,  if  there  is  any  truth  plainly  set  forth  in  this 
Book,  it  is  that  we  have  thoroughly  gone  astray,  and 
that  we  are  not  by  nature  almost  right,  but  alto- 
gether wrong.  "  The  heart  is  deceitful  above  all 
things,  and  desperately  wicked."  Some  of  us  have 
been  in  Hampton  Court,  and  we  remember  that 
room  where  all  the  four  walls  are  covered  with  mir- 


GOSPEL   LOOKING-GLASS.  409 

rors,  and  it  does  not  make  any  difference  which  way 
you  look,  you  see  yourself.  And  when  a  man  once 
fully  steps  inside  this  precinct  of  the  Gospel  he  sees 
himself  on  all  sides,  every  feature  of  moral  deformity, 
every  spot  of  moral  taint.  The  whole  head  is  sick, 
and  the  whole  heart  is  faint.  I  do  not  care  what 
your  ancestry  was,  your  ancestry  was  no  better  than 
my  ancestry.  But  all  generations  have  felt  this 
touch  of  sin.  Have  you  not  realized  it  ?  I  will  tell 
you  why.  You  have  never  looked  into  the  looking- 
glass,  you  have  never  seen  the  mirror. 

"  But,"  says  some  one,  "  what  is  the  use  of  display- 
ing our  defects  to  us  if  we  cannot  get  rid  of  them  ?  " 
None.  You  say  :  "  What  is  the  use  of  showing  me 
that  I  am  a  sinner  if  I  cannot  be  anything  but  a 
sinner?"  No  use.  I  cannot  imagine  anything 
meaner  than  for  a  physician  to  come  into  a  sick  room 
and  tell  the  patient  how  bad  he  looks,  and  to  dis- 
course upon  his  affliction,  and  enlarge  upon  the  fact 
that  his  case  is  hopeless,  and  then  go  out  with  his 
hands  behind  his  back  and  whistling.  There  never 
has  been  a  case  like  that.  No  physician  would  be  so 
hard-hearted  as  that.  If  you  cannot  cure  a  disease 
you  certainly  will  not  make  the  matter  worse  by  dis- 
coursing upon  it,  and  I  am  the  last  man  to  stand  here 
and  talk  about  the  sin  of  my  heart  and  the  sin  of 
your  heart  unless  there  is  a  cure  for  it.  There  is  no 
use  for  the  polished  side  of  this  laver,  no  use  for  the 
burnished  looking-glass,  if  there  is  no  place  for  me  to 
wash  and  be  clean. 

Now,  you  notice  that  this  laver  of  looking-glasses 
spoken  of  in  my  text,  was  filled  with  fresh  water 
every  morning.  The  servants  of  the  tabernacle  took 
buckets,  and  they  filled  them  with  the  water,  and 


410  GOSPEL   LOOKING-GLASS. 

they  brought  this  bright  water  and  poured  it  into  the 
laver  ;  and  that  is  a  type  of  this  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  which  is  a  fresh  Gospel — fresh  every  year, 
every  day,  every  hour,  every  moment.  It  is  not  a 
stagnant  pool  of  accumulated  corruption  ;  it  is  living 
water  breaking  from  the  rock.  Christians  often 
make  the  mistake  of  being  satisfied  with  old  experi- 
ences. Why,  my  brother  and  sister,  I  do  not  care 
what  your  experiences  were  ten,  fifteen  years  ago. 
Do  not  give  us  a  stale  Gospel.  Give  us  a  fresh  Gos- 
pel. What  are  you  now  ?  Suppose  a  war  should 
come,  and  I  could  prove  to  the  government  that  ten 
years  ago  I  was  loyal,  would  that  be  any  excuse  for 
my  not  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance?  The  govern- 
ment would  not  ask  me  what  I  was  ten  years  ago, 
but,  "  What  are  you  now  ?"  And  I  do  not  ask  you 
whether  you  were  loyal  to  Jesus  Christ  ten  or  five 
years,  or  one  year  ago.  Are  you  loyal  now?  Are 
you  fighting  under  the  standards  of  Emanuel  ?  Are 
you  a  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ  now? 

The  trouble  is,  that  a  great  many  are  depending 
upon  old  insurances  against  the  damage  of  sin,  and 
old  insurances  against  the  damage  of  the  great 
future — old  insurances  that  have  run  out.  Suppose 
that  you  allowed  the  fire  insurance  on  your  home  to 
expire  yesterday,  and  to-day  your  home  should  be 
consumed,  would  you  have  the  impertinence  to  go 
to-morrow  morning  with  the  papers  to  the  insurance 
company  and  demand  the  amount  of  the  policy  ?  No. 
If  you  did  they  would  say  :  "You  have  no  business 
here,  you  have  no  right  to  ask  that,  you  let  the  insur- 
ance expire  on  Saturday  ;  this  is  Monday."  O  fol- 
lower of  the  Lord  Jesus,  do  not  depend  upon  old  in- 
surances, ten,  or  twenty,  or  forty  years  old,  as  I  know 


GOSPEL   LOOKING-GLASS.  411 

some  of  you  are  depending  upon  them  !  You  want 
the  policy  paid  up  by  the  blood  and  the  tears  of  the 
Son  of  God. 

But  I  notice  in  regard  to  this  laver  looking-glass 
that  the  priests  there  washed  their  hands  and  their 
feet.  The  water  came  down  through  the  spouts 
from  the  basin,  and  they  carefully  and  completely 
washed  their  hands  and  their  feet,  typical  of  the  fact 
that  this  Gospel  is  to  reach  to  the  very  extremities 
of  our  moral  nature.  Here  is  a  man  who  says  :  "  I 
will  fence  off  part  of  my  heart,  and  it  shall  be  a  gar- 
den full  of  flowers  and  fruits  of  Christian  character, 
and  all  the  rest  shall  be  the  devil's  commons."  You 
can  not  do  it.  It  is  all  garden  or  none.  You  tell  me 
about  a  man,  that  he  is  a  good  Christian  except  in 
politics.  I  deny  your  statement.  If  his  religion  will 
not  take  him  in  purity  through  the  autumnal  election, 
that  religion  is  worth  nothing  in  May,  June,  or  July. 
You  say  that  a  man  is  a  very  good  man,  he  is  a 
Christian,  he  is  useful,  but  he  over-reaches  in  a  bar- 
gain. I  deny  your  statement.  If  it  is  an  all-per- 
vading religion,  if  it  touches  a  man  at  all  at  one 
point  of  his  nature,  it  will  pervade  his  entire  nature. 

It  is  quite  easy  to  be  a  Christian,  or  seems  to  be, 
on  Sabbath,  surrounded  by  kindly  influences ;  but 
not  so  easy  to  be  a  Christian  when  by  one  twitch  of 
the  roll  of  goods  you  can  cover  a  defect  in  the  silk. 
It  is  quite  an  easy  thing  to  be  a  Christian  with  a 
psalm-book  in  your  hand  and  the  Bible  on  your  lap ; 
not  so  easy  to  be  a  Christian  when  telling  a  merchant 
you  can  get  better  goods  at  less  price  at  another 
store  until  he  lets  you  have  the  goods  cheaper  than 
he  has  any  capacity  to  sell  them ;  he  is  going  to  hurt 
himself  when  he  does  sell,  for  there  are  more  lies  told 


412  GOSPEL   LOOKING-GLASS. 

before  the  counter  than  behind  the  counter,  ten  to 
one.  Christ  will  have  you  all,  or  He  will  have  none 
of  you.  This  grace  must  reach  to  the  very  extrem- 
ities of  our  nature. 

Suppose  you  have  rented  or  purchased  a  whole 
house,  and  the  former  owner  comes  to  you  with  the 
keys.  There  are  twelve  rooms  in  the  house  and  he 
gives  you  six  of  the  keys.  You  say :  "  Where  are 
the  other  keys?"  "Oh,"  he  says,  "  you  can't  have 
them !  There  is  a  room  on  the  second  floor  you 
can't  have,  and  there  is' a  room  on  the  third  floor  and 
a  room  on  the  fourth  floor  you  can't  have,  and  there 
is  a  dark  place  in  the  attic  you  can't  have,  but  here 
are  the  keys  for  the  others."  You  say  :  "  I  purchased 
the  whole  house,  and  I  want  all  the  keys,  or  I  don't 
want  any  of  them."  Here  is  a  man  who  comes  to 
God,  and  he  gives  part  of  his  nature,  and  says:  "You 
may  go  to  this  and  go  to  that,  but  there  is  something 
I  can't  give  up,  there  is  a  room  in  my  nature  I  can't 
surrender;  and  this  I  want  to  keep,  and  that  I  want 
to  keep.  You  can  have  half  the  keys  of  my  soul,  but 
not  all."  Then  Christ  will  not  have  any.  He  will 
take  everything,  from  cellar  to  attic — all  of  the  keys 
to  all  your  affections,  all  your  hopes,  all  your 
ambitions,  all  your  heart,  all  your  life,  or  He  will  not 
take  one  key.  The  grace  of  God  must  touch  the 
extremities,  the  very  extremities  of  our  moral  nature. 
The  priests  when  they  came  to  this  laver  of  looking- 
glasses  washed  their  hands  and  washed  their  feet. 

I  notice  in  this  laver  of  looking-glasses  that  the 
washing  in  it  was  not  optional,  it  was  imperative. 
Here  the  priests  came  into  the  tabernacle.  Suppose 
now  one  of  them  should  say :  "  I  washed  before  I 
came  from  home  ;  there's  no  use  of  my  washing  in 


GOSPEL   LOOKING-GLASS.  413 

this  laver."  God  says:  "You  wash  in  this  laver  or 
die."  But  suppose  the  priest  had  said :  "  Why,  there 
are  other  lavers  just  as  bright  as  that  from  which 
this  water  was  taken,  and  I  might  wash  there  just  as 
well;  why  wash  in  the  water  of  this  laver?"  God 
says :  "  Wash  here  or  die."  Not  optional — impera- 
tive. Typical  of  the  Gospel  which  says  :  "  You  wash 
in  this  fountain  open  for  sin  and  uncleanness,  or 
perish."  We  have  no  choice. 

"  But,"  says  some  one,  "  couldn't  God  have  pro- 
vided other  ways  of  salvation  ?"  Fifty  of  them,  per- 
haps. I  do  not  think  that  God  exhausted  all  His 
wisdom  when  he  laid  out  this  plan  of  salvation.  Per- 
haps he  might  have  provided  fifty  plans  of  salvation. 
He  provided  only  one.  You  say  :  "  Might  not  a 
whole  line  of  ships  sail  from  earth  to  heaven  ?"  Yes, 
but  there  is  only  one  going.  Are  there  any  other 
trees  as  luxuriant  as  the  tree  of  Calvary  ?  Yes, 
more,  for  that  one  had  neither  bud  nor  blossom,  and 
it  was  stripped  and  barked,  But  the  one  path  to 
heaven  is  under  the  bare  arm  of  that  stripped  tree. 
Not  optional,  but  imperative. 

O  brother,  sister,  come  up  to  the  laver  of  the 
Gospel !  O  afflicted  soul,  come  and  bathe  off  your 
wounds,  and,  sick  one,  come  up  and  cool  your  hot 
temples.  Pardon  for  all  your  sin.  Comfort  for  all 
your  troubles.  The  dark  cloud  that  hung  thunder- 
ing over  Sinai  floated  above  Calvary  and  burst  into 
a  shower  of  the  Saviour's  tears.  If  you  have  any 
trouble,  come  to  God.  He  will  make  you  His  dar- 
lings. He  will  make  you  his  favorites.  We  cannot 
in  our  households  have  favorites,  but  if  you  have  a 
favorite,  mother,  I  know  which  one  it  is  ;  it  is  the 
sick  one,  the  crippled  one,  the  one  that  coughs  all 


414  GOSPEL   LOOKING-GLASS. 

night,  the  weary  one,  the  wan  one — that  is  your 
favorite.  And  God  seems  to  have  His  favorites,  and 
they  are  the  weak  and  the  worn  and  the  sick  and  the 
weary.  Just  come  up  to  Him  to-day,  and  He  will 
put  His  arms  around  you,  and  He  will  kiss  your  wan 
cheek,  and  He  will  say  as  He  hushes  you  with  the 
divine  lullaby :  "  As  one  whom  his  mother  com- 
forteth,  so  will  I  comfort  you." 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 

RELIGION   IX   DRESS. 

That  we  should  all  be  clad  is  proved  by  the  open- 
ing  of  the  first  wardrobe  in  Paradise,  with  its  apparel 
of  dark  green.  That  we  should  all,  as  far  as  our 
means  allows  us,  be  beautifully  and  gracefully  ap- 
pareled, is  proved  by  the  fact  that  God  never  made 
a  wave  but  He  gilded  it,  or  a  tree  but  He  garlanded 
it  with  blossoms,  or  a  sky  but  He  studded  it  with 
stars,  or  allowed  the  smoke  of  a  furnace  to  ascend 
but  He  columned  and  turreted  and  domed  and 
scrolled  it  into  outlines  of  indescribable  gracefulness. 
When  I  see  the  apple-orchards  of  the  spring  and  the 
pageantry  of  the  autumnal  forests  I  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  if  Nature  ever  does  join  a  church,  while 
she  may  be  a  Quaker  in  the  silence  of  her  worship, 
she  never  will  be  a  Quaker  in  the  style  of  her  dress. 

Why  the  notches  on  a  fern-leaf,  or  the  stamen  on  a 
water-lily?  Why,  when  the  day  departs,  does  it  let 
the  folding-doors  of  heaven  stay  open  so  long,  when 
it  might  go  in  so  quickly?  One  summer  morning  I 
saw  an  army  of  a  million  spears,  each  one  adorned 
with  a  diamond  of  the  first  water — I  mean  the  grass 
with  the  dew  on  it.  I  say  these  things  as  a  back- 
ground, to  show  you  that  I  have  no  prim,  precise, 
prudish,  or  cast-iron  theories  on  the  subject  of  human 
apparel.  But  the  goddess  of  fashion  has  set  up  her 
throne  in  this  country,  and  at  the  sound  of  the  tim- 

415 


416  RELIGION   IN   DRESS. 

brels  we  are  all  expected  to  fall  down  and  worship. 
This  goddess  of  fashion  has  become  a  rival  of  the 
Lord  of  heaven  and  earth ;  and  it  is  high  time  that 
we  unlimbered  our  batteries  against  this  idolatry. 

When  I  come  to  count  the  victims  of  fashion  I 
find  as  many  masculine  as  feminine.  Men  make 
an  easy  tirade  against  woman,  as  though  she  were 
the  chief  worshiper  at  this  idolatrous  shrine,  and  no 
doubt  there  are  men  in  the  more  conspicuous  part  of 
the  pew  who  have  already  cast  glances  to  the  more 
retired  part  of  the  pew,  their  look  a  prophecy  of  a  gen- 
erous distribution  to  others  of  the  more  cogent  parts 
of  my  discourse.  My  words  shall  be  as  appropriate 
for  one  end  of  the  pew  as  for  the  other.  Men  are  as 
much  the  idolators  of  fashion  as  women,  but  they 
throw  themselves  on  a  different  part  of  the  altar. 
With  men  the  fashion  goes  to  cigars,  and  club-rooms, 
and  yachting  parties,  and  wine  suppers.  In  the 
United  States  the  men  chew  up  and  smoke  one  hun- 
dred millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  tobacco  every  year. 
That  is  their  fashion. 

But  men  do  not  abstain  from  millinery  and  elabora- 
tion of  skirt  through  any  superiority  of  humility.  It 
is  only  because  such  appendages  would  be  a  blockade 
to  business.  What  would  sashes  and  trails  three  and 
a  half  yards  long  do  in  a  Wall  street  stock  market? 
And  yet  men  are  the  disciples  of  fashion  just  as  much 
as  women.  Some  of  them  wear  boots  so  tight  they 
can  hardly  walk  in  paths  of  righteousness.  And 
there  are  men  who  buy  expensive  suits  of  clothes 
and  never  pay  for  them,  and  who  go  through  the 
streets  in  great  stripes  of  color  like  animated  checker, 
boards,  and  suggest  to  one  that,  after  all,  Tweed  in 
prison  dress  may  have  got  out  of  the  penitentiary. 


RELIGION   IN   DRESS.  417 

Then  there  are  multitudes  of  men  who,  not  satisfied 
with  the  bodies  the  Lord  gave  them^are  padded,  so 
their  shoulders  shall  be  square,  carrying  around  a 
small  cotton  plantation  !  And  I  understand  a  great 
many  of  them  now  paint  their  eyebrows  and  their 
lips;  and  I  have  heard  from  good  authority  that 
there  are  multitudes  of  men  in  Brooklyn  and  New 
York — men — things  have  got  to  such  an  awful  pass — 
multitudes  of  men  wearing  corsets  ! 

I  say  these  things,  because  I  want  to  show  you 
that  I  am  impartial  in  this  discussion,  and  that  both 
sexes,  in  the  language  of  the  Surrogate's  office,  shall 
"  share  and  share  alike."  I  shall  show  you  what  are 
the  destroying  and  deathful  influences  of  inordinate 
fashion. 

The  first  baleful  influence  is  in  fraud,  illimitable 
and  ghastly.  Do  you  know  that  Arnold  of  the  Revo- 
lution proposed  to  sell  his  country  in  order  to  get 
money  to  supply  his  wife's  wardrobe?  I  declare 
here  before  God  that  the  effort  to  keep  up  expensive 
wardrobes  in  this  country  is  sending  many  business 
men  to  temporal  and  eternal  perdition.  What  was  it 
that  sent  Oilman  to  the  penitentiary,  and  Philadelphia 
Morton  to  the  watering  of  stocks,  and  the  life-insur. 
ance  presidents  to  perjured  statements  about  their 
assets,  and  has  completely  upset  our  American 
finances?  What  was  it  that  overthrew  Belknap,  the 
United  States  Secretary  at  Washington,  the  crash  of 
whose  fall  shook  the  continent  ? 

But  why  should  I  go  to  these  infamous  defaultings 
to  show  what  men  will  do  in  order  to  keep  up  great 
home  style  and  expensive  wardrobe,  when  you  and  I 
know  scores  of  men  who  are  put  to  their  wit's  end 
and  are  lashed  from  January  to  December  in  the 


41 8  RELIGION    IN   DRESS. 

attempt  to  keep  up  great  home  style.  Our  Washing- 
ton politicians  .may  theorize  until  the  expiration  of 
their  terms  of  office  as  to  the  best  way  of  improving 
our  monetary  condition  in  this  country ;  it  will  be  of 
no  use,  and  things  will  be  no  better,  until  we  learn  to 
put  on  our  heads  and  backs  and  feet  and  hands  no 
more  than  we  can  pay  for! 

There  are  clerks  in  stores  and  banks  on  limited 
salaries  who,  in  the  vain  attempt  to  keep  the  ward- 
robe of  their  family  as  showy  as  other  wardrobes, 
are  dying  of  muffs,  and  diamonds,  and  camel's-hair 
shawls,  and  high  hats,  and  they  have  nothing  left 
except  what  they  give  to  cigars  and  wine-suppers, 
and  the)r  die  before  their  time,  and  they  will  expect 
us  ministers  to  preach  about  them  as  though  they 
were  the  victims  of  early  piety,  and  after  a  high-toned 
funeral,  with  silver  handles  at  the  side  of  their  coffin^ 
of  extraordinary  brightness,  it  will  be  found  out  that 
in  the  act  of  dying  and  going  to  Greenwood  they 
swindled  the  undertaker  out  of  his  legitimate 
expenses. 

The  country  is  dressed  to  death.  You  are  not  sur- 
prised to  find  that  the  putting  up  of  one  public  build- 
ing in  New  York  cost  millions  of  dollars  more  than  it 
ought  to  have  cost  when  you  find  out  that  the  man 
who  gave  out  the  contracts  paid  more  than  five  thou- 
sand dollars  for  his  daughter's  wedding  dress.  The 
cashmeres  of  a  thousand  dollars  each  are  not  rare  on 
Broadway.  What  are  men  to  do  in  order  to  keep  up 
such  home  wardrobes?  Steal — that  is  the  only  re- 
spectable thing  it  seems  to  them  they  can  do. 

During  the  last  fifteen  years  there  have  been 
innumerable  fine  businesses  shipwrecked  on  the 
wardrobe. 


RELIGION   IN   DRESS.  419 

The  temptation  comes  in  this  way  :  A  man  thinks 
more  of  his  family  than  he  does  of  all  the  world  out- 
side, and  if  they  spend  the  evening  in  describing  to 
him  the  superior  wardrobe  of  the  family  across  the 
street,  that  they  cannot  bear  the  sight  of,  the  man  is 
thrown  on  his  gallantry  and  his  pride  of  family,  and, 
without  translating  his  feelings  into  plain  language, 
he  goes  into  extortion  and  issuing  false  stock,  and 
skillful  penmanship  in  writing  somebody  else's  name 
at  the  foot  of  a  promissory  note ;  and  they  all  go 
down  together — the  husband  to  the  prison,  the  wife 
to  the  sewing  machine,  the  children  to  be  taken  care 
of  by  those  who  were  called  poor  relations.  Oh,  for 
some  new  Shakespeare  to  arise  and  write  the  tragedy 
of  clothes ! 

Act  the  first  of  the  tragedy — A  plain  but  beautiful 
home.  Enter,  the  newly-married  pair.  Enter,  sim- 
plicity of  manner  and  behavior.  Enter,  as  much  hap- 
piness as  is  ever  found  in  one  home. 

Act  the  second — Discontent  with  the  humdrum  of 
life.  Enter,  envy.  Enter,  jealousy.  Enter,  desire 
of  display. 

Act  the  third — Enlargement  of  expenses.  Enter, 
all  the  queenly  dressmakers.  Enter,  the  French 
milliners. 

Act  the  fourth — The  tip-top  of  society.  Enter, 
princes  and  princesses  of  New  York  life.  Enter, 
magnificent  plate  and  equipage.  Enter,  everything 
splendid. 

Act  the  fifth  and  last — Winding  up  of  the  Scene. 
Enter,  the  assignee.  Enter,  the  sheriff.  Enter,  the 
creditors.  Enter,  humiliation.  Enter,  the  wrath  of 
God.  Enter,  the  contempt  of  society.  Enter,  death. 
Now  let  the  silk  curtain  drop  on  the  stage.  The 
farce  is  ended,  and  the  lights  are  out. 


420  RELIGION    IN    DRESS. 

Will  you  forgive  me  if  1  say  in  tersest  shape 
possible,  that  some  of  the  men  in  this  country  have 
to  forge,  and  have  to  perjnre,  and  have  to  swindle,  to 
pay  for  their  wives'  dresses  ?  I  do  not  care  whether 
you  forgive  me  or  not. 

Again,  inordinate  fashion  is  the  foe  of  all  alms- 
giving. 

Men  and  women  put  so  much  in  personal  display 
that  they  often  have  nothing  for  God  and  the  cause 
of  suffering  humanity.  A  Christian  man  cracks  his 
Palais  Royal  gloves  clear  across  the  back  by  holding 
on  to  the  one  cent  too  tight  as  he  puts  it  into  the 
poor-box.  A  Christian  woman,  at  the  story  of  the 
Hottentots,  crying  copious  tears  into  a  twenty-five 
dollar  handkerchief,  and  then  gives  a  two-cent  piece 
to  the  collection,  thrusting  it  down  under  the  bills  so 
that  people  will  not  know  but  it  was  a  ten-dollar  gold 
piece.  One  hundred  dollars  for  incense  to  fashion. 
Two  cents  for  God. 

God  gives  us  ninety  cents  out  of  every  dollar. 
The  other  ten  cents,  by  command  of  His  Bible,  be- 
long to  Him.  Is  not  God  liberal  according  to  this 
tithing  system  laid  down  in  the  Old  Testament — is 
not  God  liberal  in  giving  us  ninety  cents  out  of  a 
dollar,  when  He  takes  but  ten  ?  We  do  not  like  that. 
We  want  to  have  ninety-nine  cents  for  ourselves  and 
one  for  God.  Now,  I  would  a  great  deal  rather  steal 
tea  cents  from  you  than  God.  I  think  one  reason 
why  a  great  many  people  do  not  get  along  in  worldly 
accumulation  faster,  is  because  they  do  not  observe 
this  divine  rule.  God  rises  up  and  says:  "Well,  if 
that  man  is  not  satisfied  with  ninety  cents  of  a  dollar, 
then  I  will  take  the  whole  dollar,  and  I  will  give  it  to 
the  man  or  woman  who  is  honest  with  me." 


RELIGION   IN   DRESS.  421 

The  greatest  obstacle  to  charity  in  the  Christian 
Church  to-day  is  the  fact  that  men  expend  so  much 
money  on  their  stomachs,  and  women  expend  so 
much  money  on  their  backs  they  have  got  nothing 
left  for  the  cause  of  God  and  the  world's  betterment. 
Inordinate  fashion  causes  distraction  in  worship. 

You  know  very  well  there  are  a  good  many  people 
who  come  to  church  just  as  they  go  to  the  races,  to 
see  who  will  come  out  ahead.  What  a  flutter  it 
makes  in  church  when  some  woman  with  extra- 
ordinary display  of  fashion  comes  in  !  "  What  a  love 
of  a  bonnet!"  says  some  one.  "What  a  perfect 
fright  .'"say  five  hundred.  For  the  most  merciless 
critics  in  the  world  are  fashion  critics.  Men  and 
women  with  souls  to  be  saved  passing  the  hour  in 
wondering  where  that  man  got  his  flamboyant  cravat 
or  what  store  that  woman  patronizes.  In  many  of 
our  churches  the  preliminary  exercises  are  taken  up 
with  the  discussion  of  wardrobes.  It  is  pitiable.  Is 
it  not  wonderful  that  the  Lord  does  not  strike  the 
meeting-house  with  lightning? 

What  distraction  of  public  worship  !  Dying  men 
and  women,  whose  bodies  are  soon  to  be  turned  into 
dust,  yet  before  three  worlds  strutting  like  peacocks, 
the  awful  question  of  the  soul's  destiny  submerged 
by  the  question  of  Creedmoor  polonaise  and  navy 
blue  velvet  with  long  fan  train  skirt,  long  enough  to 
drag  up  the  church  aisle,  the  husband's  store,  office, 
shop,  factory,  fortune,  and  the  admiration  of  half  the 
people  in  the  building.  Men  and  women  come  late 
to  church  to  show  their  clothes.  People  sitting  down 
in  a  pew,  taking  up  a  hymn  book,  all  absorbed  at  the 
same  time  in  personal  array,  to  sing : 


422  RELIGION"    IX    DRESS. 

"  Rise,  my  soul,  and  stretch  thy  wings, 

Thy  better  portion  trace ; 
Rise  from  transitory  things 

Toward  heaven,  thy  native  place!" 

I  turn  Episcopalian  long  enough  to  say,  "  Good 
Lord,  deliver  us!" 

Insatiate  fashion  also  belittles  the  intellect. 

Our  minds  are  enlarged,  or  they  dwindle  just  in 
proportion  to  the  importance  of  the  subject  on  which 
we  constantly  dwell.  Can  you  imagine  anything 
more  be-dwarfing  to  the  human  intellect  than  the 
study  of  fashion  ?  I  see  men  on  the  street,  who, 
judging  from  their  elaboration,  I  think,  must  have 
taken  two  hours  to  arrange  their  apparel. 

What  will  be  left  of  a  woman's  intellect  after  giv- 
ing years  and  years  to  the  discussion  of  such  ques- 
tions as  the  comparison  between  knife-plaits  and 
box-plaits,  and  borderings  of  gray  fox  fur  or  black 
marten,  or  the  comparative  excellence  of  circulars  of 
repped  Antwerp  silk  lined  with  blue  fox  fur,  or 
with  Hudson  Bay  sable?  They  all  land  in  idiocy, 
the  first  stages  or  the  last  stages.  I  have  seen  men 
at  the  summer  watering-places,  through  fashion  the 
mere  wreck  of  what  they  once  were — sallow  of  cheek, 
meager  of  limb,  gone  in  at  the  chest ;  showing  no 
animation  save  in  rushing  across  a  room  to  pick  up  * 
lady's  fan  ;  simpering  along  the  corridors  the  same 
compliments  they  simpered  twenty  years  ago.  The 
fools  of  fashion  are  myriad.  Fashion  not  only  de- 
stroys the  body,  but  it  makes  idiotic  the  intellect. 

Yet,  my  friends,  I  have  given  you  only  the  milder 
phase  of  this  evil.  It  shuts  a  great  multitude  out  of 
heaven.  The  first  peal  of  thunder  that  shook  Sinai 
declared :  "  Thou  shalt  have  no  other  god  before 
me,"  and  you  will  have  to  choose  between  the  god- 


RELIGION   IN   DRESS.  423 

dess  of  fashion  and  the  Christian  God.  There  are  a 
great  many  seats  in  heaven,  and  they  are  all  easy 
seats,  but  not  one  seat  for  the  devotee  of  fashion. 
You  could  not  sail  up  the  harbor  of  heaven  with  that 
rigging.  You  would  be  fired  on  as  a  blockade-run- 
ner. Heaven  is  for  meek  and  quiet  spirits.  Heaven 
is  for  those  who  think  more  of  their  souls  than  they 
do  of  their  bodies.  Heaven  is  for  those  who  have 
more  joy  in  Christian  charity  than  they  have  in  fash- 
ionable attire. 


CHAPTER   XLIV. 

THE    COMING    SERMON. 

We  hear  a  great  deal  in  these  days  about  the  com- 
ing man,  and  the  coming  woman,  and  the  corning 
time.  Some  one  ought  to  tell  us  of  the  coming  ser- 
mon. It  is  a  simple  fact  that  everybody  knows  that 
the  sermon  of  to-day  does  not  reach  the  world. 

The  sermon  of  to-day  carries  along  with  it  the  dead- 
wood  of  all  age's.  Hundreds  of  years  ago  it  was  de- 
cided what  a  sermon  ought  to  be,  and  it  is  the  attempt 
of  many  theological  seminaries  and  doctors  of  divinity 
to  hew  the  modern  pulpit  utterances  into  the  same 
old-style  proportions.  Booksellers  will  tell  you  they 
dispose  of  a  hundred  histories,  a  hundred  novels,  a 
hundred  poems  to  one  book  of  sermons. 

What  is  the  matter?  Some  say  the  age  is  the 
worst  of  all  the  ages.  It  is  better.  Some  say  religion 
is  wearing  out,  when  it  is  wearing  in.  Some  say 
there  are  so  many  who  despise  the  Christian  religion. 
I  answer,  there  never  was  an  age  when  there  were 
so  many  Christians,  or  so  many  friends  of  Christianity 
as  this  age  has — our  age — as  to  others  a  hundred  to 
one.  What  is  the  matter,  then?  It  is  simply  be- 
cause our  sermon  of  to-day  is  not  suited  to  the  age. 
It  is  the  canal-boat  in  an  age  of  locomotive  and  elec- 
tric telegraph.  The  sermon  will  have  to  be  shaken 
out  of  the  old  grooves,  or  it  will  not  be  heard,  and  it 
will  not  be  read. 

424 


THE  COMING   SERMON.  425 

Before  the  world  is  converted  the  sermon  will  have 
to  be  converted.  You  might  as  well  go  into  the  mod- 
ern Sedan  or  Gettysburg  with  bows  and  arrows  in- 
stead of  rifles,  and  bombshells,  and  parks  of  artillery, 
as  to  expect  to  conquer  this  world  for  God  by  the  old 
styles  of  sermonology.  Jonathan  Edwards  preached 
the  sermons  most  adapted  to  the  age  in  which  he  lived, 
but  if  those  sermons  were  preached  now  they  would 
divide  an  audience  into  two  classes:  Those  sound 
asleep  and  those  wanting  to  go  home. 

That  coming  sermon  will  be  full  of  a  living  Christ 
in  contradistinction  to  didactic  technicalities.  A  ser- 
mon may  be  full  of  Christ  though  hardly  mentioning 
His  name,  and  a  sermon  may  be  empty  of  Christ 
while  every  sentence  is  repetitions  of  His  titles.  The 
world  wants  a  living  Christ,  not  a  Christ  standing  at 
the  head  of  a  formal  system  of  theology,  but  a  Christ 
who  meaps  pardon  and  sympathy  and  condolence 
and  brotherhood  and  life  and  heaven.  A  poor  man's 
Christ.  An  overworked  man's  Christ.  An  invalid's 
Christ.  A  farmer's  Christ.  A  merchant's  Christ. 
An  artisan's  Christ.  An  every  man's  Christ. 

A  symmetrical  and  fine-worded  system  of  theology 
is  well  enough  for  theological  classes,  but  it  has  no 
more  business  in  a  pulpit  than  have  the  technical 
phrases  of  an  anatomist,  or  a  physiologist,  or  physi- 
cian in  the  sick  room  of  a  patient.  The  world  wants 
help,  immediate  and  world-uplifting,  and  it  will  come 
through  a  sermon  in  which  Christ  shall  walk  right 
down  into  the  immortal  soul  and  take  everlasting 
possession  of  it,  filling  it  as  full  of  light  as  is  this 
noonday  firmament. 

Oh,  in  that  coming  sermon  of  the  Christian  Church, 
there  will  be  living  illustrations  taken  out  from  every- 


426  THE  COMING  SERMON. 

day  life  of  vicarious  suffering — illustrations  that  will 
bring  to  mind  the  ghastlier  sacrifice  of  Him  who  in 
the  high  places  of  the  field,  on  the  cross  fought  our 
battles  and  wept  our  griefs,  and  endured  our  struggle 
and  died  our  death. 

A  German  sculptor  made  an  image  of  Christ,  and 
he  asked  his  little  child,  two  years  old,  who  it  was, 
and  she  said  :  "  That  must  be  some  very  great  man." 
The  sculptor  was  displeased  with  the  criticism,  so  he 
got  another  block  of  marble  and  chiseled  away  on  it 
two  or  three  years,  and  then  he  brought  in  his  little 
child,  four  or  five  years  of  age,  and  he  said  to  her, 
'"  Who  do  you  think  that  is?"  She  said,  "  That  must 
be  the  One  who  took  little  children  in  His  arms  and 
blessed  them."  Then  the  sculptor  was  satisfied.  O 
my  friends,  what  the  world  wants  is  not  a  cold  Christ, 
not  an  intellectual  Christ,  not  a  severely  magisterial 
Christ,  but  a  loving  Christ,  spreading  out  His  arms 
of  sympathy  to  press  the  whole  world  to  His  loving 
heart. 

The  coming  sermon  of  the  Christian  Church  will 
be  a  short  sermon. 

Condensation  is  demanded  by  the  age  in  which  we 
live.  No  more  need  of  long  introductions  and  long 
applications  and  so  many  divisions  to  a  discourse  that 
it  may  be  said  to  be  hydra  headed.  In  other  days, 
men  got  all  their  information  from  the  pulpit.  There 
were  few  books  and  there  were  no  newspapers,  and 
there  was  little  travel  from  place  to  place,  and  people 
would  sit  and  listen  two  and  a  half  hours  to  a  reli- 
gious discourse,  and  "seventeenthly"  would  find  them 
fresh  and  chipper.  In  those  times  there  was  enough 
room  for  a  man  to  take  an  hour  to  warm  himself  up 
to  the  subject,  and  an  hour  to  cool  off.  But  what  was 


THE   COMING   SERMON.  427 

a  necessity  then  is  a  superfluity  now.  Congregations 
are  full  of  knowledge  from  books,  from  newspapers, 
from  rapid  and  continuous  intercommunication,  and 
long  disquisitions  of  what  they  know  already  will  not 
be  abided.  If  a  religious  teacher  cannot  compress 
what  he  wishes  to  say  to  the  people  in  the  space  of 
forty-five  minutes,  better  adjourn  it  to  some  other  day- 

The  trouble  is,  we  preach  audiences  into  a  Chris- 
tian frame  and  then  we  preach  them  out  of  it.  We 
forget  that  every  auditor  has  so  much  capacity  of  at- 
tention, and  when  that  is  exhausted  he  is  restless.  In 
all  religious  discourse  we  want  locomotive  power  and 
propulsion  ;  we  want  at  the  same  time  stout  brakes 
to  let  down  at  the  right  instant.  It  is  a  dismal  thing 
after  a  hearer  has  comprehended  the  whole  subject 
to  hear  a  man  say,  "  Now,  to  recapitulate,"  and  "  A 
few  words  by  way  of  application, "and "Once  more," 
and  "  Finally,"  and  "  Now  to  conclude." 

Paul  preached  until  midnight,  and  Eutychus  got 
sound  asleep  and  fell  out  of  a  window  and  broke  his 
neck.  Some  would  say,  "  Good  for  him."  I  would 
rather  be  sympathetic  like  Paul,  and  resuscitate  him. 
The  accident  is  often  quoted  now  in  religious  circles 
as  a  warning  against  somnolence  in  church.  It  is  just 
as  much  a  warning  to  ministers  against  prolixity. 
Eutychus  was  wrong  in  his  somnolence,  but  Paul 
made  a  mistake  when  he  kept  o»  till  midnight.  He 
ought  to  have  stopped  at  eleven  o'clock,  and  there 
would  have  been  no  accident.  If  Paul  might  have 
gone  on  to  too  great  a  length,  let  all  those  of  us  who 
are  now  preaching  the  Gospel  remember  that  there 
is  a  limit  to  religious  discourse,  or  ought  to  be,  and 
that  in  our  time  we  have  no  apostolic  power  of 
miracles. 


428  THE    COMING    SF.RMOX. 

Napoleon  in  an  address  of  seven  minutes  thrilled 
his  army  and  thrilled  Europe.  Christ's  sermon  on 
the  mount,  the  model  sermon,  was  less  than  eighteen 
minutes  long  at  ordinary  mode  of  delivery.  It  is  not 
electricity  scattered  all  over  the  sky  that  strikes,  but 
electricity  gathered  into  a  thunderbolt  and  hurled ; 
and  it  is  not  religious  truth  scattered  over,  spread 
out  over  a  vast  reach  of  time,  but  religious  truth 
projected  in  compact  form  that  flashes  light  upon  the 
soul  and  rives  its  indifference. 

When  the  coming  sermon  arrives  in  this  land  and 
in  the  Christian  Church,  the  sermon  which  is  to 
arouse  the  world  and  startle  the  nations  and  usher  in 
the  kingdom,  it  will  be  a  brief  sermon.  Hear  it,  all 
theological  students,  all  ye  just  entering  upon  reli- 
gious work,  all  ye  men  and  women  who  in  Sabbath- 
schools  and  other  departments  are  toiling  for  Christ 
and  the  salyation  of  immortals.  Brevity!  Brevity! 

The  coming  sermon  of  which  I  speak  will  be  a  pop- 
ular sermon.  There  are  those  in  these  times  who 
speak  of  a  popular  sermon  as  though  there  must  be 
something  wrong  about  it.  As  these  critics  are  dull 
themselves  the  world  gets  the  impression  that  a  ser- 
mon is  good  in  proportion  as  it  is  stupid.  Christ  was 
the  most  popular  preacher  the  world  ever  saw,  and 
considering  the  small  number  of  the  world's  popula- 
tion, had  the  largest  audiences  ever  gathered.  He 
never  preached  anywhere  without  making  a  great 
sensation.  People  rushed  out  in  the  wilderness  to 
hear  Him,  reckless  of  their  physical  necessities.  So 
great  was  their  anxiety  to  hear  Christ,  that  taking  no 
food  with  them,  they  would  have  fainted  and  starved 
had  not  Christ  performed  a  miracle  and  fed  them. 

Why  did  so  many  people  take  the  truth  at  Christ's 


THE   COMING   SERMON.  429 

hands  ?  Because  they  all  understood  it.  He  illus- 
trated His  subject  by  a  hen  and  her  chickens,  by  a 
bushel  measure,  by  a  handful  of  salt,  by  a  bird's  flight, 
and  by  a  lily's  aroma.  All'the  people  knew  what  He 
meant,  and  they  flocked  to  Him.  And  when  the  com- 
ing sermon  of  the  Christian  Church  appears  it  will 
not  be  Princetonian,  nor  Rochesterian,  nor  Ando- 
verian,  nor  Middletonian,  but  Olivetic — plain,  practi- 
cal, unique,  earnest,  comprehensive  of  all  the  woes, 
wants,  sins,  sorrows  and  necessities  of  an  auditory. 

But  when  that  sermon  does  come,  there  will  be  a 
thousand  gleaming  scimeters  to  charge  on  it.  There 
are  in  so  many  theological  seminaries  professors  tell- 
ing young  men  how  to  preach,  themselves  not  know- 
ing how,  and  I  am  told  that  if  a  young  man  in  some 
of  our  theological  seminaries  says  anything  quaint,  or 
thrilling,  or  unique,  faculty  and  students  fly  at  him, 
and  set  him  right,  and  straighten  him  out,  and  smooth 
him  down,  and  chop  him  off  until  he  says  everything 
just  as  everybody  else  says  it. 

Oh,  when  the  coming  sermon  of  the  Christian 
Church  arrives,  all  the  churches  of  Christ  in  our 
great  cities  will  be  thronged.  The  world  wants  spir- 
itual help.  All  who  have  buried  their  dead  want 
comfort.  All  know  themselves  *o  be  mortal  and  to 
be  immortal,  and  they  want  to  hear  about  the  great 
future.  I  tell  you,  my  friends,  if  the  people  of  these 
great  cities  who  have  had  trouble  only  thought  they 
could  get  practical  and  sympathetic  help  in  the 
Christian  Church  there  would  not  be  a  street  in  New 
York,  or  Brooklyn,  or  Chicago,  or  Charleston,  or 
Philadelphia,  or  Boston  which  would  be  passable  on 
the  Sabbath  day,  if  there  were  a  church  on  it,  for  all 
the  people  would  press  to  that  asylum  of  mercy,  that 
great  house  of  comfort  and  consolation. 


45°  THE   COMIXC   SERMON. 

\Vc-  hearagreat  deal  of  discussion  now  all  ovt-rtlu- 
land  about  why  people  do  not  go  to  church.  Some 
say  it  is  because  Christianity  is  dying  out,  and  be- 
cause people  do  not  believe  in  the  truth  of  God's 
Word,  and  all  that.  They  are  false  reasons.  The 
reason  is  because  our  sermons  are  not  interesting  and 
practical,  and  sympathetic  and  helpful.  Some  one 
might  as  well  tell  the  whole  truth  on  this  subject,  and 
so  I  will  tell  it.  The  sermon  of  the  future,  the  Gos- 
pel sermon  to  come  forth,  and  shake  the  nations,  and 
lift  people  out  of  darkness,  will  be  a  popular  sermon, 
just  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  will  meet  the  woes, 
and  the  wants,  and  the  anxieties  of  the  people. 

The  sermon  of  the  future  will  be  an  awakening  ser- 
mon. From  altar-rail  to  the  front  doorstep,  under 
that  sermon  an  audience  will  get  up  and  start  for 
heaven.  There  will  be  in  it  many  a  staccato  passage. 
It  will  not  be  a  lullaby  ;  it  will  be  a  battle  charge. 
Men  will  drop  their  sins,  for  the}*  will  feel  the  hot 
breath  of  pursuing  retribution  ~on  the  back  of  their 
necks.  It  will  be  a  sermon  sympathetic  with  all  the 
physical  distresses  as  well  as  the  spiritual  distresses 
of  the  world.  Christ  not  only  preached,  but  He 
healed  paralysis,  and  He  healed  epilepsy,  and  He 
healed  the  dumb,  ard  the  blind,  and  ten  lepers. 

That  sermon  of  the  future  will  be  an  everyday 
sermon,  going  right  down  into  every  man's  life,  and 
it  will  teach  him  how  to  vote,  how  to  bargain,  how  to 
plow,  how  to  do  any  work  he  is  called  to,  how  to 
wield  trowel,  and  pen.  and  pencil,  and  yardstick,  and 
plane.  And  it  will  teach  women  how  to  preside  over 
their  households,  and  how  to  educate  their  children, 
and  how  to  imitate  Miriam,  and  Esther,  and  Vashti 
and  Eunice,  the  mother  of  Timothv  ;  and  Mary,  the 


THE   COMING   SERMON.  431 

mother  of  Christ;  and  those  women  who  on  North- 
ern and  Southern  battlefields  were  mistaken  by  the 
wounded  for  angels  of  mercy  fresh  from  the  throne 
of  God. 


PART   III. 


(Joalg  for1  tsje  ^oral 


CHAPTER  XLV. 

THE   GATES   OF   HELL. 

You  know  about  the  gates  of  heaven.  You  have 
often  heard  them  preached  about.  There  are  three 
to  each  point  of  the  compass.  On  the  north,  three 
gates;  on  the  south,  three  gates;  on  the  east,  three 
gates ;  on  the  west,  three  gates ;  and  each  gate  is  a 
solid  pearl.  Oh,  gate  of  heaven,  may  we  all  get  into 
it  !  But  who  shall  describe  the  gates  of  hell  ?  These 
gates  are  burnished  until  they  sparkle  and  glisten  in 
the  gaslight.  They  are  mighty,  and  set  in  sockets  of 
deep  and  dreadful  masonry.  They  are  high,  so  that 
those  who  are  in  may  not  clamber  over  and  get  out. 
They  are  heavy,  but  they  swing  easily  in  to  let  those 
go  in  who  are  to  be  destroyed. 

I  remember,  when  the  Franco-German  war  was 
going  on,  that  I  stood  one  day  in  Paris  looking  at  the 
gates  of  the  Tuilleries,  and  I  was  so  absorbed  in  the 
sculpturing  at  the  top  of  the  gates — the  masonry 
and  the  bronze — that  I  forgot  myself,  and  after  a  while, 
looking  down,  I  saw  that  there  were  officers  of  the 
law  scrutinizing  me,  supposing,  no  doubt,  I  was  a 
German,  and  looking  at  those  gates  for  adverse  pur- 
poses. But,  my  friends,  we  shall  not  stand  looking 
at  the  outside  of  the  gates  of  hell.  I  intend  to  tell 
you  of  both  sides,  and  I  shall  tell  you  what  those 
gates  are  made  of.  With  the  hammer  of  God's  truth 
I  shall  pound  on  the  brazen  panels,  and  with  the 

435 


436  THE   GATES   OF   HELL. 

lantern  of  God's  truth  I  shall  flash  a  light  upon  the 
shining  hinges. 

Gate  the  first :  Impure  literature.  Anthony  Com- 
stc.xk  seized  twenty  tons  of  bad  books,  plates,  and  let- 
ter-press, and  when  Professor  Cochran,  of  the  Poly- 
technic Institute,  poured  the  destructive  acids  on. 
those  plates,  they  smoked  in  the  righteous  annihila- 
tion. And  yet  a  great  deal  of  the  bad  literature  of 
the  day  is  not  gripped  of  the  law.  It  is  strewn  in 
your  parlors;  it  is  in  your  libraries.  Some  of  your 
children  read  it  at  night  after  they  have  retired,  the 
gas-burner  swung  as  near  as  possible  to  their  pillow. 

Much  of  this  literature  goes  under  the  title  of 
scientific  information.  A  book-agent  with  one  of 
these  infernal  books,  glossed  over  with  scientific 
nomenclature,  went  into  a  hotel  and  sold  in  one  day 
a  hundred  copies,  and  sold  them  all  to  women !  It  is 
appalling  that  men  and  women  who  can  get,  through 
their  family  physician,  all  the  useful  information  they 
may  need,  and  without  any  contamination,  should 
wade  chin  deep  through  such  accursed  literature, 
under  the  plea  of  getting  useful  knowledge,  and  that 
printing-presses,  hoping  to  be  called  decent,  lend 
themselves  to  this  infamy.  Fathers  and  mothers,  be 
not  deceived  by  the  title,  "medical  works."  Nine- 
tenths  of  those  books  come  hot  from  the  lost  world, 
though  they  may  have  on  them  the  names  of  the 
publishing  houses  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia. 

Then,  there  is  all  *Iie  novelette  literature  of  the 
day  flung  over  the  land  by  the  million.  No  one — 
mark  this — no  one  systematically  reads  the  average 
novelette  of  this  day  and  keeps  either  integrity  or 
virtue.  The  most  of  these  novelettes  are  written  by 
broken-down  literary  men  for  small  compensation,  on 


THE    GATES    OK    HELL.  437 

the  principle  that,  having  failed  in  literature  elevated 
and  pure,  they  hope  to  succeed  in  the  tainted  and 
the  nasty.  Oh,  this  is  a  wide  gate  of  hell !  Every 
panel  is  made  out  of  a  bad  book  or  newspaper. 
Every  hinge  is  the  interjoined  type  of  a  corrupt 
printing-press.  Every  bolt  or  lock  of  that  gate  is 
made  out  of  the  plate  of  an  unclean  pictorial.  In 
other  words,  there  are  a  million  men  and  women  in 
the  United  States  to-day  reading  themselves  into 
hell! 

When  in  your  own  beautiful  city,  a  prosperous 
family  fell  into  ruins  through  the  misdeeds  of  one  of 
its  members,  the  amazed  mother  said  to  the  officer  of 
the  law :  "Why,  I  never  supposed  there  was  any- 
thing wrong.  I  never  thought  there  could  be  any- 
thing wrong."  Then  she  sat  weeping  in  silence  for 
some  time,  and  said :  "Oh,  I  have  got  it  now  !  I 
know,  I  know!  I  found  in  her  bureau,  after  she  went 
away,  a  bad  book.  That's  what  slew  her  !" 

These  leprous  booksellers  have  gathered  up  the 
catalogues  of  all  the  male  and  female  seminaries  in 
the  United  States — catalogues  containing  the  names 
and  the  residences  of  all  the  students,  and  circulars 
of  death  are  sent  to  every  one,  without  any  exception. 
Can  you  imagine  anything  more  dreadful?  There  is 
not  a  young  person,  male  or  female,  or  an  old  person,* 
who  has  not  had  offered  to  him  or  her,  a  bad  book  or 
a  bad  picture.  Scour  your  house  to  find  out  whether 
there  are  any  of  these  adders  coiled  on  your  parlor 
center  table,  or  coiled  amid  the  toilet-set  on  the  dress- 
ing-case. I  adjure  you  before  the  sun  goes  down,  to 
explore  your  family  libraries  with  an  inexorable 
scrutiny.  Remember  that  one  bad  book  or  bad  pic- 
ture may  do  the  work  for  eternity.  I  want  to  arouse 


TIIK    (iATKS    OF    HELL. 

all  your  suspicions  about  novelettes.  1  want  to  put 
you  on  the  watch  against  everything  that  may  seem 
iike  surreptitious  correspondence  through  the  post- 
office.  1  want  you  to  understand  that  impure  litera- 
ture is  one  of  the  broadest,  highest,  mightiest  gates 
of  the  lost. 

Gate  the  second :  The  dissolute  dance. — You  shall 
not  divert  me  to  the  general  subject  of  dancing. 
Whatever  you  may  think  about  the  parlor  dance,  or 
the  methodic  motion  of  the  bodv  to  sounds  of  music 
in  the  family  or  the  social  circle,  I  am  not  now  dis- 
cussing that  question.  I  want  you  to  unite  with  me 
this  morning  in  recognizing  the  fact  that  there  is  a 
dissolute  dance.  You  know  of  what  I  speak.  It.  is 
seen  not  only  in  the  low  haunts  of  death,  but  in  ele- 
gant mansions.  It  is  the  first  step  to  eternal  ruin  for 
a  great  multitude  of  both  sexes. 

You  know,  my  friends,  what  postures  and  attitudes 
and  figures  are  suggested  of  the  devil.  They  who 
glide  into  the  dissolute  dance  glide  over  an  inclined 
plane,  and  the  dance  is  swifter  and  swifter,  wilder  and 
wilder,  until,  with  the  speed  of  lightning,  they  whirl 
off  the  edges  of  a  decent  life  into  a  fiery  future.  This 
gate  of  hell  swings  across  the  Axminster  of  many  a 
fine  parlor  and  across  the  ball-room  of  the  summer 
watering-place.  You  have  no  right,  my  brother,  mv 
sister — you  have  no  right  to  take  an  attitude  to  the 
sound  of  music  which  would  be  unbecoming  in  the 
absence  of  music. 

Gate  tlie  third :  Indiscreet  apparel. — The  attire  of 
woman  for  the  last  four  or  five  years  has  been  beau- 
tiful and  graceful  beyond  anything  I  have  known ; 
but  there  are  those  that  will  always  carry  that  which 
is  right  into  the  extraordinary  and  indiscreet.  I 


THE   GATES   OF   HELL.  439 

charge  Christian  women  neither  by  style  of  dress  nor 
adjustment  of  apparel  to  become  administrative  of 
evil.  Perhaps  none  else  will  dare  to  tell  you,  so  I 
will  tell  you  that  there  are  multitudes  of  men  who 
owe  their  eternal  damnation  to  the  boldness  of  wom- 
anly attire. 

Show  me  the  fashion-plates  of  any  age  between  this 
and  the  time  of  Louis  the  Sixteenth,  of  France,  and 
Henry  the  Eighth,  of  England,  and  I  will  tell  you  the 
type  of  morals  or  immorals  of  that  age  or  that  year. 
No  exception  to  it.  Modest  apparel  indicates  a 
righteous  people.  Immodest  apparel  always  indi- 
cates a  contaminated  and  depraved  society.  You 
wonder  that  the  city  of  Tyre  was  destroyed  with 
such  a  terrible  destruction.  Have  you  ever  seen  the 
fashion-plates  of  Tyre? 

I  will  show  it  to  you  :  "  Moreover,  the  Lord  saith, 
because  the  daughters  of  Zion  are  haughty  and  walk 
with  stretched-forth  necks  and  wanton  eyes,  walking 
and  mincing  as  they  go,  and  making  a  tinkling  with 
their  feet,  in  that  day  the  Lord  will  take  away  the 
bravery  of  their  tinkling  ornaments  about  their  feet, 
and  their  cauls,  and  their  round  tires  like  the  moon, 
the  rings  and  nose-jewels,  the  changeable  suits  of  ap- 
parel, and  the  mantles,  and  the  wimples,  and  the 
crisping-pins  "  (Isaiah  3  :  16-22).  That  is  the  fashion- 
plate  of  ancient  Tyre.  And  do  you  wonder  that  God 
in  His  indignation  blotted  out  the  city  ? 

Gate  tlie  fourth  :  Alcoholic  beverage. — All  the 
scenes  of  wickedness  are  under  the  enchantment  of 
the  wine-cup.  That  is  what  the  waitresses  carry  on 
the  platter.  That  is  what  glows  on  the  table.  That 
is  what  shines  in  illuminated  gardens.  That  is  what 
flushes  the  cheeks  of  the  patrons  who  come  in.  That 


440  THE   GATES   OK   HELL. 

is  what  staggers  the  step  of  the  patrons  as  they  go 
out.  Oh,  the  wine-cup  is  the  pattern  of  impurity. 
The  officers  of  the  law  tell  us  that  nearly  all  the  men 
who  go  into  the  shambles  of  death  go  in  intoxicated, 
the  mental  and  the  spiritual  abolished,  that  the  brute 
may  triumph. 

Tell  me  that  a  young  man  drinks,  and  1  know  the 
whole  story.  If  he  become  a  captive  of  the  wine 
cup,  he  will  become  a  captive  of  all  other  vices,  only 
give  him  time.  No  one  ever  knows  drunkenness 
alone.  That  is  a  carrion-crow  that  goes  in  a  flock, 
and  when  you  see  that  beak  ahead,  you  may  know 
the  other  beaks  are  coming.  In  other  words,  the 
wine-cup  unbalances  and  dethrones  one's  better  judg- 
ment, and  leaves  one  the  prey  of  all  evil  appetites 
that  may  choose  to  alight  upon  his  soul. 

There  is  not  a  place  of  any  kind  of  sin  in  the  United 
States  to-day  that  does  not  find  its  chief  abettor  in 
the  chalice  of  inebriety.  There  is  either  a  drinking- 
bar  before,  or  one  behind,  or  one  above,  or  one  under- 
neath. The  officers  of  the  law  have  said  to  me : 
"  These  people  escape  legal  penalty  because  they  are 
all  licensed  to  sell  liquor."  Then  I  have  said  to  my- 
self :  "  The  courts  that  license  the  sale  of  strong 
drink,  license  gambling-houses,  license  libertinism,  li- 
cense disease,  license  death,  license  all  sufferings,  all 
crimes,  all  despoliations,  all  disasters,  all  murders,  all 
woe.  It  is  the  courts  and  the  legislature  that  are 
swinging  wide  open  this  grinding,  creaky,  stupendous 
gate  of  the  lost." 

But  you  say,  "  You  have  described  these  gates  of 
hell,  and  shown  us  how  they  swing  in  to  allow  the  en- 
trance of  the  doomed.  Will  you  not,  please,  tell  us 
how  these  gates  may  swing  out  to  allow  the  escape  of 
the  penitent?"  I  reply,  but  very  few  escape. 


THE   GATES   OF   HELL:  441 

Of  the  thousand  that  go  in,  nine  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  perish.  Suppose  one  of  these  wanderers 
should  knock  at  your  door,  would  you  admit  her? 
Suppose  you  knew  where  she  came  from,  would  you 
ask  her  to  sit  down  at  your  dining-table  ?  Would  you 
ask  her  to  become  the  governess  of  your  children  ? 
Would  you  introduce  her  among  your  own  acquaint- 
ance ?  Would  you  take  the  responsibility  of  pulling 
on  the  outside  of  the  gate  of  hell  while  she  pushed  on 
the  inside  of  that  gate  trying  to  get  out?  You  would 
not — not  one  of  a  thousand  of  you  that  would  dare  to 
do  it.  You  write  beautiful  poetry  over  her  sorrows, 
and  weep  over  her  misfortunes,  but  give  her  practi- 
cal help  you  never  will.  There  is  not  one  person 
out  of  a  thousand  that  will — there  is  not  one  out  of 
five  thousand  that  has  come  so  near  the  heart  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  to  dare  to  help  one  of  these 
fallen  souls. 

But  you  say,  "Are  there  no  ways  of  escape  for  the 
poor  wanderers?"  Oh,  yes ;  three  or  four.  The  one 
way  is  the  sewing-girl's  garret,  dingy,  cold,  hunger- 
blasted.  But  you  say,  "  Is  there  no  other  way  for  her 
to  escape?"  Oh,  yes.  Another  way  is  the  street 
that  leads  to  East  River,  at  midnight,  the  end  of  the 
city  dock,  the  moon  shining  down  on  the  water  mak- 
ing it  look  so  smooth  she  wonders  if  it  is  deep  enough. 
It  is.  No  boatman  near  enough  to  hear  the  plunge. 
No  watchman  near  enough  to  pick  her  out  before  she 
sinks  the  third  time.  No  other  way  ?  Yes.  By  the 
curve  of  the  Hudson  River  Railroad,  at  the  point 
where  the  engineer  of  the  lightning  express  train  can- 
not see  a  hundred  yards  ahead  to  the  form  that  lies 
across  the  track.  He  may  whistle  "  down  brakes," 
but  not  soon  enough  to  disappoint  the  one  who  seeks 
her  death. 


44-  THE  GATES  OF  HELL. 

But  you  say,  "  Isn't  God  good,  and  won't  He  for- 
give  ?  "  Yes  ;  but  man  will  not,  woman  will  not,  so- 
ciety will  not.  The  Church  of  God  says  it  will,  but 
it  will  not.  Our  work,  then,  must  be  preventive 
rather  than  cure. 

Those  gates  of  hell  are  to  be  prostrated  just  as  cer- 
tainly as  God  and  the  Bible  are  true,  but  it  will  not 
be  done  until  Christian  men  and  women,  quitting 
their  prudery  and  squeamishness  in  this  matter,  rally 
the  whole  Christian  sentiment  of  the  church  and 
assail  these  great  evils  of  society.  The  Bible  utters 
its  denunciation  in  this  direction  again  and  again,  and 
yet  the  piety  of  the  day  is  such  a  namby-pamby  sort 
of  thing  that  you  cannot  even  quote  Scripture  with- 
out making  somebody  restless.  As  long  as  this  holy 
imbecility  reigns  in  the  Church  of  God,  sin  will  laugh 
you  to  scorn.  I  do  not  know  but  that  before  the 
Church  wakes  up  matters  will  get  worse  and  worse, 
and  that  there  will  have  to  be  one  lamb  sacrificed 
from  each  of  the  most  carefully  guarded  folds,  and 
the  wave  of  uncleanness  dash  to  the  spire  of  the  vil- 
lage church  and  the  top  of  the  cathedral  pillar. 

Prophets  and  patriarchs,  and  apostles  and  evangel- 
ists, and  Christ  Himself  have  thundered  against  these 
sins  as  against  no  other,  and  yet  there  are  those  who 
think  we  ought  to  take,  when  we  speak  of  these  sub- 
jects, a  tone  apologetic.  I  put  my  foot  on  all  the 
conventional  rhetoric  on  this  subject,  and  I  tell  you 
plainly  that  unless  you  give  up  that  sin  your  doom  is 
sealed,  and  world  without  end  you  will  be  chased  by 
the  anathemas  of  an  incensed  God.  I  rally  you  to  a 
besiegement  of  the  gates  of  hell.  We  want  in  this 
besieging  host  no  soft  sentimentalists,  but  men  who 
are  willing  to  give  and  take  hard  knocks.  The  gates 


GATES   OF   HELL.  443 

of  Ghaza  were  carried  off ;  the  gates  of  T.hebes  were 
battered  down  ;  the  gates  of  Babylon  were  destroyed, 
and  the  gates  of  hell  are  going  to  be  prostrated. 

The  Christianized  printing  press  will  be  rolled  up 
as  the  chief  battering-ram.  Then  there  will  be  a  long 
list  of  aroused  pulpits,  which  shall  be  assailing  fort- 
resses, and  God's  red-hot  truth  shall  be  the  flying 
ammunition  of  the  contest;  and. the  sappers  and  the 
miners  will  lay  the  train  under  these  foundations  of 
sin,  and  at  just  the  right  time  God,  who  leads  on  the 
fray,  will  cry,  "  Down  with  the  gates !  "  and  the  ex- 
plosion beneath  will  be  answered  by  all  the  trumpets 
of  God  on  high,  celebrating  universal  victory. 

But  there  may  be  one  wanderer  that  would  like,  to 
have  a  kind  word  calling  homeward.  I  have  told 
you  that  society  has  no  mercy.  Did  I  hint,  at  an 
earlier  point  in  this  subject,  that  God  will  have  mercy 
upon  any  wanderer  who  would  like  to  come  back  to 
the  heart  of  infinite  love  ? 

A  cold  Christmas  night  in  a  farmhouse.  Father 
comes  in  from  the  barn,  knocks  the  snow  from  his 
shoes,  and  sits  down  by  the  fire.  The  mother  sits  at 
the  stand  knitting.  She  says  to  him,  "  Do  you  re- 
member it  is  the  anniversary  to-night?"  The  father 
is  angered.  He  never  wants  any  allusion'  to  the  fact 
that  one  had  gone  away,  and  the  mere  suggestion 
that  it  was  the  anniversary  of  that  sad  event  made 
him  quite  rough,  although  the  tears  ran  down  his 
cheeks.  The  old  house  dog,  that  had  played  with 
the  wanderer  when  she  was  a  child,  comes  up  and 
puts  his  head  on  the  old  man's  knee,  but  he  roughly 
repulses  the  dog.  He  wants  nothing  to  remind  him 
of  the  anniversary  day. 

A  cold  winter  night  in  a  city  church.     It  is  Christ 


444  THE  GATES   OK   HELL. 

mas  night..  They  have  been  decorating  the  sanctuary. 
A  lost  wanderer  of  the  street,  with  thin  shawl  about 
her,  attracted  by  the  warmth  and  light,  comes  in  and 
sits  near  the  door.  The  minister  of  religion  is  preach- 
ing of  Him  who  was  wounded  for  our  transgressions 
and  bruised  for  our  iniquities,  and  the  poor  soul  by 
the  door  said  :  "  Why,  that  must  mean  me  ;  '  mercy 
for  the  chief  of  sinners;  bruised  for  our  iniquities ; 
wounded  for  our  transgressions.'  " 

The  music  that  night  in  the  sanctuary  brought 
back  the  old  hymn  which  she  used  to  sing  when, 
with  father  and  mother,  she  worshiped  God  in  the 
village  church.  The  service  over,  the  minister  went 
down  the  aisle.  She  said  to  him  :  "Were  those  words 
forme?  'Wounded  for  our  transgressions.'  Was  that 
for  me?"  The  man  of  God  understood  her  not.  He 
knew  not  how  to  comfort  a  shipwrecked  soul,  and  he 
passed  on  and  he  passed  out.  The  poor  wanderer 
followed  into  the  street. 

"What  are  you  doing  here,  Meg?"  said  the  police. 
"What  are  you  doing  here  to-night?1'  "Oh,"  she  re- 
plied, "I  was  in  to  warm  myself;"  and  then  the  rat- 
tling cough  came,  and  she  held  to  the  railing  until 
the  paroxysm  was  over.  She  passed  on  down  the 
street,  falling  from  exhaustion;  recovering  herself 
again,  until  after  a  while  she  reached  the  outskirts  of 
the  city,  and  passed  on  into  the  country  road.  It 
seemed  so  familiar ;  she  kept  on  the  road,  and  she 
saw  in  the  distance  a  light  in  the  window.  Ah  !  that 
light  had  been  gleaming  there  every  night  since  she 
went  away.  On  that  country  road  she  passed  until 
she  came,  to  the  garden  gate.  She  opened  it  and 
passed  up  the  path  where  she  played  in  childhood. 
She  came  to  the  steps  and  looked  in  at  the  fire  on 


THE   GATES   OF   HELL.  445 

the  hearth.  Then  she  put  her  fingers  to  the  latch. 
Oh,  if  that  door  had  been  locked  she  would  have 
perished  on  the  threshold,  for  she  was  near  to  death  ! 
But  that  door  had  not  been  locked  since  the  time  she 
went  away.  She  pushed  open  the  door.  She  went 
in  and  lay  down  on  the  hearth  by  the  fire.  The  old 
house-dog  growled  as  he  saw  her  enter,  but  there  was 
something  in  the  voice  he  recognized,  and  he  frisked 
about  her  until  he  almost  pushed  her  down  in  his  joy. 

In  the  morning  the  mother  came  down,  and  she 
saw  a  bundle  of  rags  on  the  hearth  ;  but  when  the 
face  was  uplifted,  she  knew  it,  and  it  was  no  more 
old  Meg  of  the  street.  Throwing  her  arms  around 
the  returned  prodigal,  she  cried,  "Oh,  Maggie  !"  The 
child  threw  her  arms  around  her  mother's  neck,  and 
said,  "Oh,  mother!"  and  while  they  were  embraced, 
a  rugged  form  towered  above  them.  It  was  the 
father.  The  severity  all  gone  out  of  his  face,  he 
stooped  and  took  her  up  tenderly  and  carried  her  to 
mother's  room,  and  laid  her  down  on  mother's  bed, 
for  she  was  dying.  Then  the  lost  one,  looking  up 
into  her  mother's  face,  said :  "  'Wounded  for  our 
transgressions,  and  bruised  for  our  iniquities !' 
Mother,  do  you  think  that  means  me  ?"  "Oh,  yes, 
my  darling,"  said  the  mother.  "If  mother  is  so  glad 
to  get  you  back,  don't  you  think  God  is  glad  to  get 
you  back?" 

And  there  she  lay  dying,  and  all  their  dreams  and 
all  their  prayers  were  filled  with  the  words,  "Wounded 
for  our  transgressions,  bruised  for  our  iniquities," 
until,  just  before  the  moment  of  her  departure,  her 
face  lighted  up,  showing  the  pardon  of  God  had 
dropped  upon  her  soul.  And  there  she  slept  away 
on  the  bosom  of  a  pardoning  Jesus.  So  the  Lord 
took  back  one  whom  the  world  rejected. 


CHAPTER  XLVI. 

INFLUENCE   OF   CLUBS. 

I  am  asked  what  is  the  influence  of  club-houses  in 
America?  Men  are  gregarious. 

Cattle  in  herds.  Birds  in  flocks.  Fish  in  schools. 
The  human  race  in  social  circles.  You  may  by  dis- 
charge of  gun  scatter  the  flock  of  quails,  and  you 
mav  bv  plunge  of  the  anchor  send  apart  the  denizens 
of  the  deep;  but  they  will  reassemble.  And  if  by 
some  power  you  could  scatter  all  the  present  associa- 
tions of  men,  they  would  again  reassemble. 

Herbs  and  flowers  prefer  to  stand  in  associations. 
You  plant  a  forget-me-not  or  a  heart's-ease  away  up 
alone  on  the  hillside,  and  it  will  soon  hunt  up  some 
other  heart's-ease  or  forget-me-not,  You  find  the 
herbs  talking  to  each  other  in  the  morning  dew.  A 
galaxy  of  stars  is  a  mutual  life  insurance  company. 
Once  in  a  while  you  find  a  man  unsympathetic  and 
alone,  and  like  a  ship's  mast,  ice-glazed,  which  the 
most  agile  sailor  could  not  climb ;  but  the  most  of 
men  have  in  their  nature  a  thousand  roots  and  a 
thousand  branches,  and  they  blossom  all  the  way  to 
the  top,  and  the  fowls  of  heaven  sing  amid  the 
branches.  Because  of  this  we  have  communities 
and  societies — some  for  the  kindling  of  mirth,  some 
for  the  raising  of  sociality,  some  for  the  advance  of 
a  craft,  some  to  plan  for  the  welfare  of  the  State — 
associations  of  artists,  of  merchants,  o(  shipwrights, 

446 


INFLUENCE    OF    CLUBS.  447 

of  carpenters,  of  masons,  of  plumbers,  of  plasterers, 
of  lawyers,  of  doctors,  of  clergymen.  Do  you  cry 
out  against  this  ?  Then  you  cry  out  against  a  divine 
arrangement. 

You  might  as  well  preach  a  sermon  to  a  busy  ant- 
hill or  beehive  against  secret  societies.  In  many  of 
the  ages  people  have  gathered  together  in  associa- 
tions, characterized  by  the  old  blunt  Saxon  desig- 
nation of  club.  If  you  have  read  history  you  know 
there  were  the  King's  Head  Club,  and  the  Ben 
Jonson  Club,  and  the  Brothers'  Club — to  which 
Swift  and  Bolingbroke  belonged — and  the  Literary 
Club,  which  Burke  and  Goldsmith  and  Johnson  and 
Boswell  made  immortal ;  and  Jacobin  Club,  and  Ben- 
jamin Franklin  Junto  Club,  and  others  almost  as  cel- 
ebrated and  conspicuous.  Some  to  advance  arts, 
some  to  vindicate  justice,  some  to  promote  good 
literature,  some  to  destroy  the  body  and  blast  the 
soul.  In  our  own  time  we  have  many  clubs.  They 
are  as  different  from  each  other  as  the  day  from  the 
night.  I  might  show  you  two  specimens. 

Here  is  the  imperial  hallway.  On  this  side  is  the 
parlor,  with  the  upholstery  of  a  Kremlin  or  a 
Tuilleries.  Here  is  a  dining-room  which  challenges 
you  to  mention  any  luxury  it  cannot  afford.  Here  is 
an  art  gallery  with  pictures  and  statues  and  drawings 
from  the  best  of  artists — Bierstadt  and  Church  and 
Cole  and  Powers — pictures  for  all  moods,  impas- 
sioned or  placid — Sheridan's  Ride  and  Farmers  at 
their  Nooning.  Shipwreck  and  Sunlight  over  the 
Seas.  Foaming  deer  with  the  hounds  after  it  in  the 
Adirondacks.  Sheep  asleep  on  the  hill-side.  And 
here  are  reading  rooms  with  the  finest  of  magazines, 
and  libraries  with  all  styles  of  books,  from  herme- 
neutics  to  fairy  tale. 


448  INFLUENCE    OF    CLUBS. 

Men  go  there  for  ten  minutes  or  for  many  hours. 
Some  come  from  beautiful  and  happy  home  circles 
for  a  little  while  that  they  may  enter  into  these  club- 
house socialities.  Others  come  from  dismembered 
Households,  and  while  they  have  humble  lodgings 
elsewhere,  find  their  chief  joy  here.  One  blackball 
amid  ten  votes  will  defeat  a  man's  membership.  For 
rowdyism  and  gambling  and  drunkenness  and  every 
style  of  misdemeanor  a  man  is  immediately  dropped. 
Brilliant  club-house  from  top  to  bottom — the  chan- 
deliers, the  plate,  the  literature,  the  social  prestige  a 
complete  enchantment. 

Here  is  another  club-house.  You  open  the  door, 
and  the  fumes  of  strong  drink  and  tobacco  are  some- 
thing almost  intolerable.  You  do  not  have  to  ask 
what  those  young  men  are  doing,  for  you  can  see  by 
the  flushed  cheek  and  intent  look  and  almost  angry 
way  of  tossing  the  dice  and  dropping  the  chips,  they 
are  gambling. 

That  is  an  only  son  seated  there  at  another  table. 
He  had  had  all  art,  all  culture,  all  refinement,  show- 
ered upon  him  by  his  parents.  That  is  the  way  he 
is  paying  them  for  their  kindness.  That  is  a  young 
married  man.  A  few  months  ago,  he  made  promises 
of  fidelity  and  kindness,  every  one  of  which  he  has 
broken.  Around  a  table  in  the  club-house  there  is  a 
group  telling  vile  stories.  It  is  getting  late  now,  and 
three-fourths  of  the  members  of  the  club  are  intoxi- 
cated. It  is  between  twelve  and  one  o'clock,  and 
after  a  while  it  is  time  to  shut  up.  The  conversation 
has  got  to  be  groveling,  base,  filthy,  outrageous. 
Time  to  shut  up.  The  young  men  saunter  forth, 
those  who  can  walk,  and  balance  themselves  against 
the  lamp-post  or  the  fence.  A  young  man  not  able 


INFLUENCE    OF    CLUBS.  449 

to  get  out  has  a  couch  extemporized  for  him  in  the 
club-house,  or  by  two  comrades  not  quite  so  over- 
come by  strong  drink,  he  is  led  to  his  father's  house, 
and  the  door-bell  rung,  and  the  door  opens,  and 
these  two  imbecile  escorts  usher  into  the  front  hall 
the  ghastliest  thing  ever  ushered  into  a  father's  house 
— a  drunken  son.  There  are  dissipating  club-houses 
which  would  do  well  if  they  could  make  a  contract 
with  Inferno  to  furnish  ten  thousand  men  a  year,  and 
do  that  for  twenty  years,  on  the  condition  that  no 
more  would  be  asked  of  them.  They  would  save — 
the  dissipating  club-houses  of  this  country  would 
save — hundreds  of  homesteads,  and  bodies,  minds, 
and  souls  innumerable.  The  ten  thousand  they  fur- 
nish a  year  by  contract  would  be  small  when  com- 
pared with  the  vaster  multitudes  they  furnish  with- 
out contract.  But  I  make  a  vast  difference  between 
the  club-houses.  I  have  during  my  life  belonged  to 
four  clubs — a  base-ball  club,  a  theological  club,  and 
two  literary  clubs.  They  were  to  me  physical  recup- 
eration, mental  food,  moral  health. 

Now,  what  is  the  principle  by  which  we  are  to 
judge  in  regard  to  the  profitable  or  baleful  influence 
of  a  club-house?  That  is  the  practical  and  the 
eternal  question  which  hundreds  of  men  to-day  are 
settling.  First,  I  would  have  you  test  your  club 
house  by  the  influence  it  has  upon  your  home,  if  you 
have  a  home.  I  have  been  told  by  a  prominent 
member  of  one  of  the  clubs,  that  three-fourths  of  the 
members  are  married  men.  That  wife  has  lost  her 
influence  over  her  husband  who  takes  every  eve- 
ning's absence  as  an  assault  upon  domesticity.  How 
are  the  great  enterprises  of  art,  and  literature,  and 
education,  and  the  public  weal  to  go  on  if  every  man 


450  INFLUENCE    OF    CLUBS. 

has  his  world  bounded  by  his  front  doorstep  on  one 
side,  and  his  back  window  on  the  other,  his  thoughts 
rising  no  higher  than  his  own  attic,  going  down  no 
deeper  than  his  own  cellar?  When  a  wife  objects  to 
a  husband's  absence  for  some  elevating  purpose,  she 
breaks  her  scepter  of  conjugal  power. 

There  should  be  no  protest  on  the  part  of  the  wife 
if  the  husband  goes  forth  to  some  practical,  useful, 
honorable  mission.  But  alas!  for  the  fact  that  so 
many  men  sacrifice  all  home-life  for  the  club-house. 
I  have  in  my  house  the  roll  of  the  members  of  many 
of  the  clubs  of  our  great  cities,  and  I  could  point  you 
to  the  names  of  many  who  have  committed  this 
awful  sacrilege. 

Genial  as  angels  at  the  club-house,  ugly  as  sin  at 
home.  Generous  to  a  fault  for  all  wine  suppers  and 
yachts  and  horse  races,  but  stingy  about  the  wife's 
dress  and  the  children's  shoes.  That  which  might 
have  been  a  healthful  recreation  has  become  a  usurp- 
ation of  his  affections,  and  he  has  married  it,  and  he 
is  guilty  of  moral  bigamy. 

Under  that  process,  whatever  be  the  wife's  features, 
she  becomes  uninteresting  and  homely.  He  criticises 
everything  about  her.  He  does  not  like  her  dress ; 
he  does  not  like  the  way  she  arranges  her  hair ;  he 
cannot  see  how  he  ever  was  so  unromantic  as  to  offer 
her  his  hand  and  heart.  It  is  all  the  time  talk  about 
money,  money,  money,  when  she  ought  to  be  talking 
about  Dexters  and  Derby  Days  and  English  drags, 
with  six  horses  all  under  control  of  one  ribbon. 
There  are  hundreds  of  homes  in  New  York  and 
Brooklyn  being  clubbed  to  death. 

Membership  in  some  of  these  clubs  always  means 
domestic  shipwreck.  Tell  me  a  man  has  become  a 


INFLUENCE    OF    CLUBS.  451 

member  in  a  certain  club,  and  tell  me  nothing  more 
about  him  for  ten  years,  and  I  will  write  his  accurate 
biography.  By  that  time  he  is  a  wine-guzzler,  and 
his  wife  is  broken-hearted  or  prematurely  old,  and 
his  property  is  lost  or  reduced,  and  his  home  is  a 
mere  name  in  a  directory. 

"  Here  are  six  days  of  the  secular  week,"  says  the 
husband  and  father.  "  How  shall  I  dispose  of  the 
six  nights  ?  Well,  I  will  give  four  to  my  family  at 
home,  or  taking  them  abroad  to  some  place  where 
they  will  be  interested.  Then  I  will  give  one  night 
to  a  religious  service,  and  I  will  give  one  night  to  a 
club-room."  I  congratulate  vou.  But  here  is  a  man 
who  makes  a  different  distribution  of  his  time.  He 
says :  "  I  will  give  three  nights  to  the  club-room,  and 
I  will  give  three  nights  to  other  duties."  I  begin  to 
tremble.  Here  is  a  man  who  makes  a  different  distri- 
bution of  his  time.  He  says :  "  Of  the  six.  secular 
nights,  I  will  give  five  to  the  club-house,  and  one  to 
my  home,  and  that  one  night  I  will  spend  in  scowling 
like  a  March  squall  because  1  am  not  spending  it  as  I 
spent  the  others."  That  man's  obituary  is  written. 
There  is  not  one  man  out  of  ten  thousand  that  gets 
as  far  as  that  on  the  road  to  ruin  that  ever  stops. 
His  physical  health  gives  way  under  the  late  hours 
and  the  stimulants.  He  is  an  easy  prey  for  erysipelas 
and  rheumatism  of  the  heart.  The  physician  at  one 
glance  sees  that  he  will  not  only  have  that  disease  to 
light,  but  many  years  of  fast  living.  The  clergyman 
at  the  obsequies  talks  in  religious  generalities.  The 
men  who  got  his  yacht  in  the  eternal  rapids  will  not 
come  to  the  obsequies.  Oh,  no,  they  will  have  press- 
ing engagements !  They  will  send  the  wife  with  a 
wreath  for  the  coffin-lid,  and  a  few  words  of  sym- 


452  INFLUENCE    OF    CLUBS. 

pathy,  but  they  will  be  busy.  Give  me  a  chisel  and 
a  mallet  that  I  may  cut  the  man's  epitaph  on  his 
tombstone  :  "  Blessed  are  the  dead  who  die  in  the 
Lord,  for  they  rest  from  their  labors,  and  their  works 
do  follow  them."  "  Oh,  no,"  you  say,  "  that  would 
not  be  appropriate."  Let  me  try  again  with  this  epi- 
taph :  "  Let  me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous,  and 
let  my  last  end  be  like  his."  "  Oh,  no,"  you  say, 
"  that  would  be  horribly  inappropriate."  Then  give 
me  the  chisel  and  the  mallet,  and  I  will  cut  an  honest 
epitaph :  "  Here  lies  the  victim  of  a  dissipating  club- 
house." 

The  damage  is  often  increased  by  the  fact  that  the 
scion  of  some  aristocratic  family  belongs  to  a  club, 
and  people  born  in  humbler  circles  feel  flattered  to 
belong  to  that  one  where  he  belongs,  not  realizing 
the  fact  that  some  of  the  sons  and  grandsons  of  the 
great  commercial  establishments  of  the  past  as  to 
mind  are  imbecile,  as  to  body  diseased,  as  to  morals 
rotten.  They  would  have  long  ago  got  through  with 
their  entire  property,  but  the  wily  ancestor  who  got 
his  money  by  hard  knocks  knows  how  it  will  be,  and 
so  he  ties  up  everything  in  his  will.  There  is  nothing 
left  now  to  that  unworthy  descendant  but  his  grand- 
lather's  name  and  roast  beef  rotundity.  And  yet 
many  a  steamer  is  proud  to  be  lashed  fast  of  that 
worm-eaten  tug,  though  it  pulls  straight  for  the 
breakers.  I  can  point  you  to  men  in  Brooklyn  and 
New  York  who,  because  of  an  illustrious  ancestry, 
are  now  taking  scores  of  men  to  their  eternal  ruin. 

Another  test  by  which  you  mav  try  your  club- 
house, or  the  one  into  whose  membership  you  are 
invited,  is  the  question,  What  is  the  influence  of  that 
institution  upon  one's  secular  occupation  ?  I  can  see 


INFLUENCE    OF    CLUBS.  453 

how  through  a  club-house  men  may  advance  their 
commercial  interests.  I  have  friends  who  have 
formed  their  best  mercantile  relations  through  such 
institutions.  But  what  has  been  the  influence  of  the 
one  with  which  you  are  connected  upon  your  wordly 
credit  ? 

Are  people  more  cautious  now  how  they  let  you 
have  goods  ?  Before  you  joined  the  club  was  your 
credit  with  the  commercial  agency  Ai  ?  and  has  it 
gone  clear  down  on  the  scale  ?  Then  beware  ! 

We  every  day  hear  the  going  to  pieces  of  com- 
mercial establishments  through  the  dissipations  of 
some  club-house  libertine  or  club-house  drunkard 
who  has  wasted  his  estate,  and  wasted  the  estate  of 
others.  The  fortune  is  beaten  to  pieces  with  the  ball- 
player's bat,  or  cut  amidship  by  the  prow  of  a 
regatta,  or  falls  under  the  sharp  hoof  of  the  fast 
horse,  or  is  drowned  in  the  potions  of  Cognac  and 
Mononghahela.  The  man's  club-house  was  the  Loch 
Earn,  his  occupation  was  the  Ville  du  Havre.  They 
struck  on  the  high  seas,  and  the  Ville  du  Havre  went 
under. 

Another  test  by  which  you  may  try  all  the  club- 
houses of  these  cities  is  the  question,  What  influence 
will  that  institution  have  upon  my  sense  of  moral 
and  spiritual  obligation  ? 

I  have  sometimes  been  perplexed,  as  some  of  you 
have  been,  at  Buffalo,  going  to  Chicago,  to  know 
whether  to  take  the  Michigan  Central  or  the  Lake 
Shore,  equally  safe,  equally  expeditious,  trains  arriv- 
ing at  the  same  hour ;  but  suppose  you  hear  that  on 
one  road  the  bridges  are  down,  the  tracks  are  torn 
up,  and  the  switches  are  unlocked,  you  very  easily 
make  up  your  mind  which  is  the  best  to  take. 


454  -  INFLUENCE    OF    CLUBS. 

Now,  here  are  two  highways  into  the  great  future, 
the  Christian  highway  and  the  unchristian;  the  one 
safe,  the  other  dangerous.  Anything  that  makes  me 
forget  that,  is  a  bad  institution.  I  had  family  prayers 
before  I  joined  the  club.  Do  I  have  them  now?  I 
attended  regularly  the  house  of  God  before  I  joined 
the  club.  Do  I  now  attend  religious  service?  Would 
you  rather  have  in  your  hand,  when  you  come  to 
die,  a  pack  of  cards  or  a  Bible?  Would  you,  in  the 
closing  moment  of  your  life,  rather  have  the  cup  of 
Belshazzarean  wassail  put  to  your  lip,  or  the  cup  of 
holy  communion  ?  Would  you,  my  brother,  rather 
have  for  eternal  companions  the  swearing,  carousing, 
vile,  story-telling  crew  that  surround  the  table  in  a 
dissipating  club-house,  or  your  little  child,  the  bright 
girl  that  God  took?  Ah!  you  would  not  have  been 
aw a}r  so  many  nights  if  you  had  thought  she  was 
going  so  soon.  Your  wife  has  never  brightened  up 
since  then.  She  has  not  got  over  it.  She  never  will 
get  over  it.  What  a  pity  it  is  that  you  can  not  spend 
more  evenings  at  home  consoling  that  great  sorrow  ! 
Oh,  you  can  not  drown  that  grief  in  a  wine-cup ! 
You  can  not  forget  those  little  arms  that  were  thrown 
around  your  neck  while  she  said:  ''Papa,  do  stay 
home  to-night,  do  stay  home  to-night !"  You  can 
not  wipe  from  your  lips  the  dying  kiss  of  that  little 
child.  And  yet  there  has  been  many  a  man  so  com- 
pletely overborne  by  the  fascinations  of  a  dissipating 
club-house,  that  he  went  off  the  night  the  child  was 
dying  of  scarlet  fever.  He  came  back  about  mid- 
night, and  it  was  all  over.  The  eyes  were  closed. 
The  undertaker  had  done  his  work.  The  wife  lay 
unconscious  in  the  next  room,  from  having  watched 
for  three  weeks.  He  came  up-stairs,  and  he  saw  the 


INFLUENCE    OF    CLUBS.  455 

empty  cradle,  and  saw  the  window  was  up.  He  said, 
"What  is  the  matter?"  In  God's  judgment  day  he 
will  find  out  what  was  the  matter.  Oh,  man  astray, 
God  help  you ! 

The  influence  which  some  of  the  club-houses  are 
exerting  is  the  more  to  be  deplored  because  it  takes 
down  the  very  best  men. 

The  admission  fee  sifts  out  the  penurious,  and 
leaves  only  the  best  fellows.  They  are  frank,  they 
are  generous,  they  are  whole-souled,  they  are  talented. 
Oh,  I  begrudge  the  devil  such  a  prize  !  After  a 
while  the  frank  look  will  go  out  of  the  face,  and  the 
features  will  be  haggard,  and  when  talking  to  you, 
instead  of  looking  you  in  the  eye  they  will  look 
.down,  and  every  morning  the  mother  will  kindly  ask, 
"  My  son,  what  kept  you  out  so  late  last  night?"  and 
he  will  make  no  answer,  or  he  will  say,  "  That's  my 
business."  Then  some  time  he  will  come  to  the  store 
or  the  bank  cross  and  befogged,  and  he  will  neglect 
some  duty,  and  after  a  while  he  will  lose  his  place, 
and  then,  with  nothing  to  do,  he  will  come  down  at 
ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  curse  the  servant  be- 
cause the  breakfast  is  cold.  The  lad  who  was  a  clerk 
in  the  cellar  has  got  to  be  chief  clerk  in  the  great 
commercial  establishment ;  the  young  man  who  ran 
errands  for  the  bank  has  got  to  be  cashier  ;  thou- 
sands of  the  young  men  who  were  at  the  foot  of  the 
ladder  have  got  to  the  top  of  the  ladder ;  but  here 
goes  the  victim  of  the  dissipating  club-house,  with 
staggering  step  and  bloodshot  eye  and  mud-spattered 
hat  set  side  wise  on  a  shock  of  greasy  hair,  his  cravat 
dashed  with  cigar  ashes.  Look  at  him  !  Pure-hearted 
young  man,  look  at  him !  The  club-house  did  that. 
I  know  one  such  who  went  the  whole  round,  and, 


456  INFLUENCE    OF    CLUBS. 

Turned  out  of  the  higher  club-houses,  went  into  the 
lower  club-houses,  and  on  down,  until  one  night 
he  leaped  out  of  a  third-story  window  to  end  his 
wretchedness. 

Let  me  say  to  fathers  who  are  becoming  dissipated, 
your  sons  will  follow  you.  You  think  your  son  does 
not  know.  He  knows  all  about  it.  I  have  heard 
men  who  say,  "  I  am  profane,  but  never  in  the  pres- 
ence of  my  children."  Your  children  know  you 
swear.  I  have  heard  men  say,  "  I  drink,  but  never  in 
the  presence  of  my  children."  Your  children  know 
you  drink.  I  describe  now  what  occurs  in  hundreds 
of  households  in  this  country.  The  tea-hour  has 
arrived.  The  family  are  seated  at  the  tea-table.  Be- 
fore the  rest  of  the  family  arise  from  the  table,  the 
father  shoves  back  his  chair,  says  he  has  an  engage- 
ment, lights  a  cigar,  goes  out,  comes  back  after  mid- 
night, and  that  is  the  history  of  three  hundred  and 
sixty-five  nights  of  the  year.  Does  any  man  want  to 
stultify  himself  by  saying  that  that  is  healthy,  that 
that  is  right,  that  that  is  honorable  ?  Would  your 
wife  have  married  you  with  such  prospects  ? 

Time  will  pass  on,  and  the  son  will  be  sixteen  or 
seventeen  years  of  age,  and  you  will  be  at  the  tea- 
table,  and  he  will  shove  back  and  have  an  engage- 
ment, and  he  will  light  his  cigar,  and  he  will  go  out 
to  the  club-house,  and  you  will  hear  nothing  of  him 
until  you  hear  the  night  key  in  the  door  after  mid- 
night. But  his  physical  constitution  is  not  quite  so 
strong  as  yours,  and  the  liquor  he  drinks  is  more  ter- 
rifically drugged  than  that  which  you  drink,  and  so 
he  will  catch  up  with  you  on  the  road  to  death, 
though  you  got  such  a  long  start  of  him,  and  so  you 
will  both  go  to  hell  together. 


INFLUENCE    OF    CLUBS.  457 

The  revolving  Drummond  light  in  front  of  a  hotel, 
in  front  of  a  locomotive,  may  flash  this  way,  and  flash 
that,  upon  the  mountains,  upon  the  ravines,  upon  the 
city ;  but  I  take  the  lamp  of  God's  eternal  truth,  and 
I  flash  it  upon  all  the  club-houses  of  these  cities,  so 
that  no  young  man  shall  be  deceived.  By  these  tests 
try  them,  try  them  !  Oh,  leave  the  dissipating  in- 
fluences of  the  club-room,  if  the  influences  of  your 
club-room  are  dissipating !  Paid  your  money,  have 
you?  Better  sacrifice  that  than  your  soul.  Good 
fellows,  are  they  ?  Under  that  process  they  will  not 
remain  such.  Mollusca  may  be  found  two  hundred 
fathoms  down  beneath  the  Norwegian  seas ;  Siberian 
stag  get  fat  on  the  stunted  growth  of  Altain  peaks; 
Hedysarium  grows  amid  the  desolation  of  Sahara; 
tufts  of  osier  and  birch  grow  on  the  hot  lips  of  vol- 
canic Sneehattan;  but  a  pure  heart  and  an  honest  life 
thrive  in  a 'dissipating  club-house — never  ! 

The  way  to  conquer  a  wild  beast  is  to  keep  your 
eye  on  him,  but  the  way  for  you  to  conquer  your 
temptations,  my  friend,  is  to  turn  your  back  on  them 
and  fly  for  your  life. 

Oh,  my  heart  aches  !  I  see  men  struggling  against 
evil  habits,  and  they  want  help.  I  have  knelt  beside 
them,  and  I  have  heard  them  cry  for  help,  and  then 
we  have  risen,  and  he  has  put  one  hand  on  my  right 
shoulder,  and  the  other  hand  on  my  left  shoulder, 
and  looked  into  my  face  with  an  infinity  of  earnest- 
ness which  the  judgment  day  will  have  no  power  to 
make  me  forget,  as  he  has  cried  out  with  his  lips 
scorched  in  ruin,  "  God  help  me!"  For  such  there 
is  no  help  except  in  the  Lord  God  Almighty.  To 
His  grace  I  commend  you. 


CHAPTER  XLVII. 

HEALTH  RESORTS. 

1  believe  in  watering-places.  1  go  there  some- 
times. Let  not  the  commercial  firm  begrudge  the 
clerk,  or  the  employer  the  journeyman,  or  the  patient 
the  physician,  or  the  church  its  pastor,  a  season  of  in- 
occupation. Luther  used  to  sport  with  his  children ; 
Edmund  Burke  used  to  caress  his  favorite  horse  ; 
Thomas  Chalmers,  in  the  dark  hour  of  the  Church's 
disruption,  played  kite  for  recreation — so  I  was  told 
by  his  own  daughter — and  the  busy  Christ  said  to  the 
busy  apostles,  "  Come  ye  apart  awhile  into  the 
desert  and  rest  yourselves."  And  I  have  observed 
that  they  who  do  not  know  how  to  rest,  do  not  know 

J 

how  to  work. 

But  I  have  to  declare  this  truth,  that  some  of  our 
fashionable  watering-places  are  the  temporal  and 
eternal  destruction  of  "  a  multitude  that  no  man  can 
number."  The  first  temptation  that  is  apt  to  hover  in 
this  direction  is  to  leave  your  piety  at  home. 

You  will  send  the  dog  and  cat  and  canary-bird  to 
be  well  cared  for  somewhere  else  ;  but  the  tempta- 
tion will  be  to  leave  your  religion  in  the  room  with 
the  blinds  down  and  the  door  bolted,  and  then  you 
will  come  back  in  the  autumn  to  find  that  it  is 
starved  and  suffocated,  lying  stretched  on  the  rug, 
stark  dead,  There  is  no  surplus  of  piety  at  the 
watering-places.  I  never  knew  any  one  to  grow 

458 


HEALTH    RESORTS.  461 

very  rapidly  in  grace  at  the  Catskill  Mountain 
House,  or  Sharon  Springs,  or  the  Falls  of  Mont- 
morency.  It  is  generally  the  case  that  the  Sabbath 
is  more  of  a  carousal  than  any  other  day,  and  there 
are  Sunday  walks,  Sunday  rides,  and  Sunday 
excursions. 

Elders  and  deacons  and  ministers  of  religion,  who 
are  entirely  consistent  at  home,  sometimes  when  the 
Sabbath  dawns  on  them  at  Niagara  Falls  or  the 
White  Mountains,  take  the  day  to  themselves.  If 
they  go  to  the  church,  it  is  apt  to  be  a  sacred  parade, 
and  the  discourse,  instead  of  being  a  plain  talk  about 
the  soul,  is  apt  to  be  what  is  called  a  crack  sermon — 
that  is,  some  discourse  picked  out  of  the  effusions  of 
the  year  as  the  one  most  adapted  to  excite  admira- 
tion ;  and  in  those  churches,  from  the  way  the  ladies 
hold  their  fans,  you  know  that  they  are  not  so  much 
impressed  with  the  heat  as  with  the  picturesqueness 
of  half-disclosed  features.  Four  puny  souls  stand  in 
the  organ-loft  and  squall  a  tune  that  nobody  knows, 
and  worshipers,  with  two  thousand  dollars'  worth 
of  diamonds  on  the  right  hand,  drop  a  cent  into  the 
poor-box,  and  then  the  benediction  is  pronounced, 
and  the  farce  is  ended.  The  toughest  thing  1 
ever  tried  to  do  was  to  be  good  at  a  watering-place. 
The  air  is  bewitched  with  "  the  world,  the  flesh,  and 
the  devil."  There  are  Christians  who,  in  three  or 
four  weeks  in  such  a  place,  have  had  such  terrible 
rents  made  in  their  Christian  robe  that  they  had  to 
keep  darning  it  until  Christmas,  to  get  it  mended. 

The  health  of  a  great  many  people  makes  an  an- 
nual visit  to  some  mineral  spring  an  absolute  neces- 
sity ;  but,  my  dear  people,  take  your  Bible  along 
with  you,  and  take  an  hour  for  secret  prayer  every 


462  HEALTH    RESORTS. 

day,  though  you  be  surrounded  by  guffaw  and  satur- 
nalia. Keep  holy  the  Sabbath,  though  they  deride 
you  as  a  bigoted  Puritan.  Stand  off  from  gambling 
hells  and  those  other  institutions  which  propose  to 
imitate  on  this  side  the  water  the  iniquities  ot  Baden- 
Baden.  Let  your  moral  and  your  immortal  health 
keep  pace  with  your  physical  recuperation,  and  re- 
member that  all  the  sulphur  and  chalybeate  springs 
cannot  do  you  so  much  good  as  the  healing,  peren- 
nial flood  that  breaks  forth  from  the  "Rock  of  Ages." 
This  may  be  your  last  summer.  If  so,  make  it  a  fit 
vestibule  of  heaven. 

Another  temptation  hovering  around  nearly  all  our 
watering-places  is  the  horse-racing  business.  We  all 
admire  the  horse  ;  but  we  do  not  think  that  its  beauty 
or  speed  ought  to  be  cultured  at  the  expense  of 
human  degradation.  The  horse  race  is  not  of  such 
importance  as  the  human  race.  The  Bible  intimates 
that  a  man  is  better  than  a  sheep,  and  I  suppose  he  is 
better  than  a  horse,  though  like  Job's  stallion,  his 
neck  be  clothed  with  thunder.  Horse-races  in  olden 
times  were  under  the  ban  of  Christian  people  ;  and  in 
our  day  the  same  institution  has  come  up  under  ficti- 
tious names.  And  it  is  called  a  "  Summer  Meeting," 
almost  suggestive  of  positive  religious  exercises. 
And  it  is  called  an  "Agricultural  Fair,"  suggestive  of 
everything  that  is  improving  in  the  art  of  farming. 
But  under  these  deceptive  titles  are  the  same  cheat- 
ing, and  the  same  betting,  and  the  same  drunkenness, 
and  the  same  vagabondage,  and  the  same  abomination 
that  were  to  l>e  found  under  the  old  horse-racing 
system. 

I  never  knew  a  man  yet  who  could  give  nimself  to 
the  pleasures  of  the  turf  for  a  long  reach  of  time  and 


HEALTH   RESORTS.  463 

riot  be  battered  in  morals.  They  hook  up  their 
spanking  team,  and  put  on  their  sporting  cap,  and 
light  their  cigar,  and  take  the  reins,  and  dash  down 
the  road  to  perdition !  The  great  day  at  Saratoga, 
and  Long  Branch,  and  Cape  May,  and  nearly  all  the 
other  watering-places  is  the  day  of  the  races.  The 
hotels  are  thronged,  every  kind  of  equipage  is  taken 
up  at  an  almost  fabulous  price  ;  and  there  are  many 
respectable  people  mingling  with  jockeys  and  gam- 
blers and  libertines,  and  foul-mouthed  men  and  flashy 
women. 

The  bartender  stirs  up  the  brandy  smash.  The 
bets  run  high.  The  greenhorns,  supposing  all  is  fair, 
put  in  their  money,  soon  enough  to  lose  it.  Three 
weeks  before  the  race  takes  place,  the  struggle  is  de- 
cided, and  the  men  in  the  secret  know  on  which  steed 
to  bet  their  money.  The  two  men  on  the  horses  rid- 
ing around,  long  ago  arranged  who  shall  win.  Lean- 
ing from  the  stand,  or  from  the  carriage,  are  men  and 
women  so  absorbed  in  the  struggle  of  bone  and 
muscle  and  mettle,  that  they  make  a  grand  harvest 
for  the  pickpockets  who  carry  off  the  pocketbooks 
and  the  portemonnaies.  Men,  looking  on,  see  only 
two  horses  with  two  riders  flying  around  the  ring ; 
but  there  is  many  a  man  on  that  stand  whose  honor 
and  domestic  happiness  and  fortune — white  mane, 
white  foot,  white  flank — are  in  the  ring,  racing  with 
inebriety,  and  with  fraud,  and  with  profanity,  and 
with  ruin — black  neck,  black  foot,  black  flank.  Neck 
and  neck  they  go  in  that  moral  Epsom.  White  horse 
of  honor;  black  horse  of  ruin.  Death  says,  "  I  will 
bet  on  the  black  horse."  Spectator  says,  "  I  will  bet 
on  the  white  horse."  The  white  horse  of  honor  a 
little  way  ahead.  The  black  horse  of  ruin,  Satan 


464  HEALTH   RESORTS. 

mounted,  all  the  time  gaining  on  him.  Spectator 
breathless.  They  put  on  the  lash,  dig  in  the  spurs. 
There  !  The)'  are  past  the  stand.  Sure.  Just  as  I 
expected  it.  The  black  horse  of  ruin  has  won  the 
race,  and  all  the  galleries  of  darkness  "Huzza! 
huzza !  "  and  the  devils  come  in  to  pick  up  their 
wagers.  Ah,  my  friends,  have  nothing  to  do  with 
horse-racing  dissipations.  Long  ago  the  English 
Government  got  through  looking  to  the  turf  for  the 
dragoon  and  the  light-cavalry  horse.  They  found 
out  that  the  turf  depreciates  the  stock  ;  and  it  is 
worse  yet 'for  men.  Thomas  Hughes,  the  Member  of 
Parliament,  and  the  author,  known  all  the  world  over, 
hearing  that  a  new  turf  enterprise  was  being  started 
in  this  country,  wrote  a  letter  in  which  he  said, 
"  Heaven  help  you,  then ;  for  of  all  the  cankers  of 
our  old  civilization  there  is  nothing  in  this  country 
approaching  in  unblushing  meanness,  in  rascality, 
holding  its  head  high,  to  this  belauded  institution  of 
the  British  turf." 

Another  famous  sportsman  writes :  "  How  many 
fine  domains  have  been  shared  among  these  hosts  of 
rapacious  sharks  during  the  last  two  hundred  years ; 
and  unless  the  system  be  altered,  how  many  more  are 
doomed  to  fall  into  the  same  gulf !"  With  the  bull- 
fights of  Spain  and  the  bear-baitings  of  the  pit,  may 
the  Lord  God  annihilate  the  infamous  and  accursed 
horse  racing  of  England  and  America. 

1  go  further  and  speak  of  another  temptation  that 
hovers  over  the  watering  place,  and  that  is  the 
temptation  to  sacrifice  physical  strength. 

The  modern  Bethesda  was  intended  to  recuperate 
the  physical  health ;  and  yet  how  many  come  from 
the  watering-places^  their  health  absolutely  destroyed! 


HEALTH   RESORTS.  465 

New  York  and  Brooklyn  simpletons,  boasting  of  hav- 
ing imbibed  twenty  glasses  of  Congress  water  before 
breakfast.  Families,  accustomed  to  going  to  bed  at 
ten  o'clock  at  night,  gossiping  until  one  or  two 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  Dyspeptics,  usually  very 
cautious  about  their  health,  mingling  ice-creams  and 
lemons  and  lobster  salads  and  cocoanuts,  until  the 
gastric  juices  lift  up  all  their  voices  of  lamentation  and 
protest.  Delicate  women  and  brainless  young  men 
dancing  themselves  into  vertigo  and  catalepsy. 
Thousands  of  men  and  women  coming  back  from 
our  watering-places  in  the  autumn  with  the  founda- 
tions laid  for  ailments  that  will  last  them  all  their  life 
long. 

You  know  as  well  as  I  do  that  this  is  the  simple 
truth.  In  the  summer,  you  say  to  your  good  health : 
"  Good-bye  ;  I  am  going  to  have  a  gay  time  now  for 
a  little  while  ;  I  will  be  very  glad  to  see  you  again  in 
the  autumn."  Then  in  the  autumn,  when  you  are 
hard  at  work  in  your  office,  or  store,  or  shop,  or 
counting-room,  Good  Health  will  come  in  and  say, 
"  Good-bye ;  I  am  going."  You  say :  "  Where  are 
you  going?"  "Oh,"  says  Good  Health,  "  I  am  going 
to  take  a  vacation."  It  is  a  poor  rule  that  will  not 
work  both  ways,  and  your  good  health  will  leave 
you  choleric  and  splenetic  and  exhausted.  You  co- 
quetted with  your  good  health  in  the  summer  time, 
and  your  good  health  is  coquetting  with  you  in  the 
winter  time.  A  fragment  of  Paul's  charge  to  the 
jailor  would  be  an  appropriate  inscription  for  the 
hotel  register  in  every  watering-place :  "  Do  thyself 
no  harm. " 

Another  temptation  hovering  around  the  watering- 
place  is  the  formation  of  hasty  and  life-long  alliances. 

3P 


466  HEALTH   RESORTS. 

The  watering-places  are  responsible  for  more  of  the 
domestic  infelicities  of  this  country  than  ali  other 
things  combined.  Society  is  so  artificial  there  that 
no  sure  judgment  of  character  can  be  formed.  They 
who  form  companionships  amid  such  circumstances, 
go  into  a  lottery  where  there  are  twenty  blanks  to 
one  prize.  In  the  severe  tug  of  life  you  want  more 
than  glitter  and  splash.  Life  is  not  a  ball-room  where 
the  music  decides  the  step,  and  bow  and  prance  and 
graceful  swing  of  long  train  can  make  up  for  strong 
common-sense.  You  might  as  well  go  among  the 
gaily-painted  yachts  of  a  summer  regatta  to  find  war 
vessels,  as  to  go  among  the  light  spray  of  the  summer 
watering-place  to  find  character  that  can  stand  the 
test  of  the  great  struggle  of  human  life. 

Ah,  in  the  battle  of  life  you  want  a  stronger  weapon 
than  a  lace  fan  or  a  croquet  mallet.  The  load  of  life 
is  so  heavy  that  in  order  to  draw  it  you  want  a  team 
stronger  than  one  made  up  of  a  masculine  grass- 
hopper and  a  feminine  butterfly.  If  there  is  any  man 
in  the  community  that  excites  my  contempt,  and  that 
ought  to  excite  the  contempt  of  every  man  and 
woman,  it  is  the  soft-handed,  soft-headed  dude  who, 
perfumed  until  the  air  is  actually  sick,  spends  his 
summer  in  making  killing  attitudes,  and  waving  senti- 
mental adieux,  and  talking  infinitesimal  nothings,  and 
finding  his  heaven  in  the  set  of  a  lavender  kid  glove. 
Boots  are  tight  as  an  inquisition.  Two  hours  of  con- 
summate skill  exhibited  in  the  tie  of  a  flaming  cravat. 
His  conversation  made  up  of  "Ahs !"  and."Ohs!"  and 
"He  hes!'' 

There  is  only  one  counterpart  to  such  a  man  as 
that,  and  that  is  the  frothy  young  woman  at  the 
watering-place  ;  her  conversation  made  up  of  French 


HEALTH    RESORTS.  467 

moonshine ;  what  she  has  in  her  head  only  equaled 
by  what  she  has  on  her  back ;  useless  ever  since  she 
was  born,  and  to  be  useless  until  she  is  dead,  useless 
until  she  becomes  an  intelligent  Christian.  We  may 
admire  music,  and  fair  faces,  and  graceful  step ;  but 
amid  the  heartlessness,  and  the  inflation,  and  the  fan- 
tastic influences  of  our  modern  watering-places,  be- 
ware how  you  make  life-long  covenants. 

Another  temptation  that  will  hover  over  the 
watering-place  is  that  of  baneful  literature. 

Almost  every  one  starting  off  for  the  summer,  takes 
some  reading  matter.  It  is  a  book  out  of  the  library, 
or  off  the  bookstand,  or  bought  of  the  boy  hawking 
books  through  the  cars.  I  really  believe  there  is 
more  pestiferous  trash  read  among  the  intelligent 
classes  in  July  and  August,  than  in  all  the  other  ten 
months  of  the  year.  Men  and  women  who  at  home 
would  not  be  satisfied  with  a  book  that  was  not 
really  sensible,  I  find  sitting  on  hotel  piazza,  or  under 
the  trees,  reading  books  the  index  of  which  would 
make  them  blush  if  they  knew  that  you  knew  what 
the  book  was.  "Oh,"  they  say,  "  you  must  have  in- 
tellectual recreation."  Yes.  There  is  no  need  that 
vou  take  along  into  a  watering-place  "  Hamilton's 
Metaphysics,"  or  some  ponderous  discourse  on  the 
eternal  decrees,  or  "  Faraday's  Philosophy."  There 
are  many  easy  books  that  are  good.  You  might  as 
well  say,  "  I  propose  now  to  give  a  little  rest  to  my 
digestive  organs,  and  instead  of  eating  heavy  meat 
and  vegetables,  I  will,  for  a  little  while,  take  lighter 
food— a  little  strychnine  and  a  few  grains  of  rats- 
bane." Literary  poison  in  August  is  as  bad  as  liter- 
ary poison  in  December.  Mark  that.  Do  not  let 
the  frogs  and  the  lice  of  a  corrupt  printing-press 


468  HEALTH    RESORTS. 

jump  and  crawl  into  your  Saratoga  trunk  or  White 
Mountain  valise. 

Are  there  not  good  books  that  are  easy  to  read- 
books  of  entertaining  travel ;  books  of  congenial 
history  ;  books  of  pure  fun ;  books  of  poetry,  ring- 
ing \vith  merry  canto ;  books  of  fine  engraving  ; 
books  that  will  rest  the  mind  as  well  as  purify  the 
heart  and  elevate  the  whole  life?  My  hearers,  there 
will  not  be  an  hour  between  this  and  the  day  of  your 
death  when  you  can  afford  to  read  a  book  lacking  in 
moral  principle. 

Another  temptation  hovering  all  around  our  water- 
ing-places is  intoxicating  beverages.  1  am  told  that 
it  is  becoming  more  and  more  fashionable  for  women 
to  drink.  I  care  not  how  well  a  woman  may  dress, 
if  she  has  taken  enough  of  wine  to  flush  her  cheek 
and  put  a  glassiness  on  her  eye,  she  is  drunk.  She 
may  be  handed  into  a  $2,500  carriage,  and  have  dia- 
monds enough  to  confound  the  Tiffanys  —  she  is 
drunk.  She  may  be  a  graduate  of  Packer  Institute, 
and  the  daughter  of  some  man  in  danger  of  being 
nominated  for  the  presidency — she  is  drunk.  You 
may  have  a  larger  vocabulary  than  I  have,  and  you 
may  say  in  regard  to  her  that  she  is  "  convivial,"  or 
she  is  "  merry,"  or  she  is  "  festive,"  or  she  is  "  exhila- 
rated ; "  but  you  cannot,  with  all  your  garlands  of 
verbiage,  cover  up  the  plain  fact  that  it  is  an  old- 
fashioned  case  of  drunk. 

Now  the  watering-places  are  full  of  temptations  to 
men  and  women  to  tipple.  At  the  close  of  the  ten- 
pin  or  billiard  game  they  tipple.  At  the  close  of  the 
cotillion  they  tipple.  Seated  on  the  piazza  cooling 
themselves  off,  they  tipple.  The  tinged  glasses  come 
around  with  bright  straws,  and  they  tipple.  First, 


HEALTH   RESORTS.  469 

they  take  "  light  wines,"  as  they  call  them ;  but 
"  light  wines  "  are  heavy  enough  to  debase  the  appe- 
tite. There  is  not  a  very  long  road  between  cham- 
pagne at  five  dollars  a  bottle  and  whiskey  at  ten 
cents  a  glass.  Satan  has  three  or  four  grades  down 
which  he  takes  men  to  destruction.  One  man  he 
takes  up,  and  through  one  spree  pitches  him  into 
eternal  darkness.  That  is  a  rare  case.  Very  seldom, 
indeed,  can  you  find  a  man  who  will  be  such  a  fool  as 
that.  Satan  will  take  another  man  to  a  grade,  to  a 
descent  at  an  angle  about  like  the  Pennsylvania  coal- 
shoot  or  the  Mount  Washington  rail-track,  and  shove 
him  off.  But  that  is  very  rare. 

When  a  man  goes  down  to  destruction,  Satan 
brings  him  to  a  plain.  It  is  almost  a  level.  The 
depression  is  so  slight  that  you  can  hardly  see  it. 
The  man  does  not  actually  know  that  he  is  on  the 
down  grade,  and  it  tips  only  a  little  toward  darkness 
—just  a  little.  And  the  first  mile  it  is  claret,  and  the 
second  mile  it  is  sherry,  and  the  third  mile  it  is  a 
punch,  and  the  fourth  mile  it  is  ale,  and  the  fifth  mile 
it  is  porter,  and  the  sixth  mile  it,  is  brandy,  and  then 
it  gets  steeper,  and  steeper,  and  steeper,  and  the  man 
gets  frightened,  and  says:  "  Oh,  let  me  off."  "No," 
says  the  conductor,  "  this  is  an  express  train,  and  it 
don't  stop  until  it  gets  to  the  Grand  Central  Depot 
of  Smashupton !  "  Ah,  "  Look  not  thou  upon  the 
wine  when  it  is  red,  when  it  giveth  his  color  in  the 
cup,  when  it  moveth  itself  aright.  At  the  last  it 
biteth  like  a  serpent,  and  stingeth  like  an  adder." 

My  friends,  whether  you  tarry  at  home — which 
will  be  quite  as  safe,  and  perhaps  quite  as  com- 
fortable— or  go  into  the  country,  arm  yourself  against 
temptation.  The  grace  of  God  is  the  only  safe 
shelter,  whether  in  town  or  country. 


CHAPTER  XLVIII. 

THE    ROLLER-SKATE    CRAZE. 

Archimedes  eulogized  the  lever,  and  he  said  if  he 
had  a  place  for  the  fulcrum  outside  of  this  world  on 
which  the  lever  could  rest,  he  could  move  the  world ; 
but  he  found  no  such  resting-place  for  the  fulcrum. 
And  it  is  not  the  lever  that  is  to  lift  or  sink  this  world, 
but  the  wheel,  whether  the  solid  disk,  or  made  up  o( 
the  rim,  and  spokes,  and  hub.  Wheel  of  rail  train, 
accelerating  travel ;  wheel  of  printing-press,  multiply- 
ing intelligence  ;  wheel  of  sewing-machine,  alleviating 
toil ;  wheel  of  chronometer,  announcing  the  passage 
of  the  hours. 

Balance  wheel,  fly  wheel,  belt  wheel,  spur  wheel, 
driving  wheel,  ratchet  wheel,  the  wheel  invented  by 
whom  I  know  not,  but  the  idea  of  it  is  suggested  to  us 
by  the  planetary  system,  which  is  a  wheel,  and  the 
constellations  and  the  galaxies,  which  are  wheels, 
and  these  smaller  wheels  playing  into  the  great 
wheel  of  the  universe,  the  axis  of  which  is  the  pillar 
on  which  rests  the  throne  of  God.  Tell  me  which 
way  the  world's  wheels  turn,  and  I  will  tell  you 
whether  it  is  going  toward  ransom  or  ruin.  Tell  me 
how  many  revolutions  they  make  in  a  minute,  and  I 
will  tell  you  how  rapidly  it  hastens  on  toward  disen- 
thralment  or  demolition. 

In  our  day  the  principle  of  the  wheel  has  been  ap- 
plied to  recreations  and  amusements,  and  the  veloci- 

470 


THE   ROLLER-SKATE   CRAZE.  473 

pede,  and  the  bicycle,  and  the  tricycle,  and  the  roller 
skate  are  the  consequence,  and  the  thousand-voiced 
question  to  be  met  is,  "Are  the  roller-skates  wheels 
of  help  or  wheels  of  ruin?"  Never  in  your  time  or 
mine  has  there  been  such  high,  wide,  popular  agita- 
tion of  the  question  of  amusements,  and  all  ministers 
of  the  Gospel,  and  all  parents,  and  all  young  people, 
and  all  old  people  need  to  be  able  to  give  an  answer 
to  these  questions,  and  a  right  answer,  and  a  reason 
for  the  answer. 

Let  me  premise  that  for  the  last  twenty-five  years 
I  have  been  looking  for  some  healthful  amusement- 
healthful  for  the  body  and  the  mind — and  an  amuse- 
ment that  would  come  in  time  to  rescue  this  genera- 
tion. Of  healthful,  honest,  useful  amusement,  you 
know  as  well  as  I  there  has  been  an  awful  scarcity. 
Plenty  of  places  to  blight  and  blast  and  consume 
body,  mind,  and  soul.  No  lack  of  gambling  saloons  ! 
Within  an  hour  of  every  home,  and  every  hotel,  and 
every  boarding-house  in  these  cities,  there  are  places 
where  a  young  man  may  get  divorced  of  his  monev, 
and  where  the  old  spider  of  the  gaming  table  offici- 
ates at  the  funeral  of  the  innocent  flies.  You  can 
lose  ten  cents,  or  you  can  lose  a  house  and  lot,  or  you 
can  lose  all  you  have  in  a  night.  Plenty  of  gambling 
saloons!  I  do  not  know  a  community  on  earth  that 
is  lacking  in  this  direction.  Plenty  of  grog-shops, 
where  the  owner,  bv  expending  twelve  dollars  for 
genuine  alcohol,  can  fix  up  a  mixture  that  he  can  sell 
for  two  hundred.  Nice  little  percentage  of  profit! 
They  let  a  young  man  have  all  he  wants  as  long  as 
his  money  lasts — one  glass,  two  glasses,  three  glasses, 
four  glasses,  five  glasses,  until  his  money  is  all  gone, 
and  it  is  demonstrated  that  he  has  not  so  much  as  a 


474  THE    ROLLER-SKATE   CRAZE. 

postage  stamp  left,  and  then  they  turn  him  into  the 
street  to  take  care  of  himself,  or  be  helped  home  by 
some  one  not  quite  so  intoxicated  as  himself,  for  the 
grog-seller  never  accompanies  his  victim  to  his  home, 
lest  at  the  door  he  confront  mother  or  wife,  to  whom 
the  Lord  may  have  lent,  for  a  little  while,  one  of  His 
smaller  thunderbolts,  with  which  to  smite  the  des- 
poiler  into  ashes.  Plenty  of  gates  of  hell,  and  all  of 
them  wide  open,  and  temptresses  to  say,  "Come  in, 
come  in  !"  But  of  honest,  useful,  healthful  amuse- 
ments, a  great  scarcity. 

Seven  o'clock  i(.  M.,  finds  tens  of  thousands  of 
young  men  at  their  home,  or  at  the  hotel,  or  at  the 
boarding-house.  The  young  man  says,  "  How  shall  I 
spend  this  evening  ?  "  You  say,  "  Go  to  prayer-meet- 
ing." Good  advice  for  two  nights  of  the  week,  and 
add  to  that  the  Sabbath  night ;  subtracting  three 
nights  lor  religious  purposes,  you  have  four  nights 
left  for  secular  purposes.  What  shall  the  young  man 
do  with  the  four  other  nights  ?  You  say,  "  Go  and 
hear  a  lecture  on  astronomy."  But  the  young  man's 
brain  is  all  tired  out  with  running  up  long  lines  of 
figures  in  the  account  book,  or  from  trying  to  sell 
goods  to  people  who  do  not  want  to  buy  them,  and 
he  has  no  appetite  for  astronomy.  He  does  not  want 
to  know  anything  about  other  worlds,  when  he  has 
more  than  he  can  do  to  take  care  of  this  one. 

Now,  you  are  a  good  man,  you  are  a  good  woman, 
you  take  up  a  newspaper  to  tell  that  young  man 
where  to  go.  You  will  find,  if  you  have  ever  tried  it, 
that  the  vast  majority  of  the  advertisements  announce 
places  illy  ventilated,  with  depraving  companionship, 
and  much  of  the  spectacular  indecent.  Two  hours 
and  a  half  in  such  a  place  of  amusement,  and  the 


THE   ROLLER-SKATE   CRAZE.  4/5 

young  man  will  come  forth  with  body  asphyxiated, 
mind  weakened,  soul  scarred.  Continuous  enter- 
tainment of  that  kind  makes  lively  work  for  underta- 
kers, and  gives  tragedy  of  illustration  for  discourses 
on  the  text, :  "  The  end  thereof  is  death."  What  our 
young  people  want  is  some  style  of  recreation  that 
shall  help  the  body  and  help  the  mind — something 
that  will  allow  them  to  be  sound  asleep  at  eleven 
o'clock  at  night,  and  to  awaken  at  seven  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  or  earlier,  thoroughly  rested. 

We  want  something  for  our  boys  and  girls  that  will 
put  them  at  the  goal  of  manhood  and  womanhood, 
ready  for  practical  and  useful  life.  Not  mere  splint- 
ers of  humanity,  not  invalids  at  nineteen,  twenty,  and 
twenty-one,  not  masculine  and  feminine  apologies, 
but  ready  to  command  respect,  and  with  their  own 
right  arm,  tinder  God,  put  aside  all  obstacles.  Now, 
a  great  many  people  are  asking  the  question :  "Does 
the  roller-skate  recreation  afford  this  ?  "  This  amuse- 
ment was  invented  in  1819,  by  Mr.  Plympton,  a 
Frenchman,  who  has  been  called  the  "  father  of  the 
rink."  He  kept  a  tight  grip  on  the  invention  of  the 
skate  until,  in  1883,  the  patent  ran  out,  and  now  there 
are  factories  all  over  the  land  producing  roller  skates, 
and  every  evening  there  are  tens  of  thousands  of  peo- 
ple, young,  middle-aged,  and  old,  on  these  wheels, 
good  or  bad.  You  ask  me  if  I  favor  the  roller-skate 
exercise?  I  reply,  Yes,  with  restrictions,  and  No,  if 
there  be  no  restrictions ;  yes,  if  it  be  restricted,  and 
no,  if  it  be  unguarded.  In  other  words,  you  can 
make  it  the  best  thing,  or  you  c^n  make  it  the  worst 
thing.  They  have  already,  some  of  them,  been  exhil- 
aration to  the  body — they  have  given  health  to  the 
sick  and  enfeebled,  and  have  been  innocent  hilarity  to 


476  THE   ROLLER-SKATE  CRAZE. 

a  vast  multitude.  Other  of  the  rinks  have  broken  up 
families,  have  set  surgeons  to  perform  most  painful 
operations,  have  produced  life-long  ailments,  and  ever- 
lasting misfortune.  There  is  as  much  difference  be- 
tween skating-rinks  as  between  light  and  darkness,  as 
between  heaven  and  hell.  I  will  not  be  misunder- 
stood on  this  subject. 

The  skating  rink  exercise,  with  proper  precautions 
— and  I  shall  show  you  what  they  are  before  I  get 
through — the  skating-rink  exercise,  with  proper  pre- 
cautions, seems  to  me  the  most  graceful  and  healthful 
of  all  amusements  and  all  recreations.  It  eclipses 
coasting,  it  eclipses  croquet,  it  eclipses  football,  and 
lawn-tennis,  and  skating  under  moonlight  over  frozen 
pond,  and  all  the  other  amusements  and  recreations, 
that  I  know  of.  It  is  good  for  the  muscles,  it  is 
good  for  the  nerves,  is  is  good  for  the  lungs,  it  is 
good  for  the  limbs,  it  is  good  for  the  circulation,  it  is 
good  for  the  spirits — under  proper  precautions.  It 
has  all  the  advantages  of  the  gymnasium,  with  more 
exhilaration  of  spirit;  it  has  all  the  advantage  of  the 
skating  pond  over  which  our  fathers  and  mothers 
used  to  dart,  without  any  danger  of  breaking  through 
the  ice ;  it  has  all  the  exhilaration  of  outdoor  sport, 
without  being  dependent  on  the  condition  of  the  at- 
mosphere. With  proper  precautions,  I  say. 

It  would  be  well  if  our  young  men  almost  every 
night  or  afternoon  of  the  secular  week  would  take 
one  hour  for  this  healthful  recreation,  and  come  back 
to  their  duties  again.  It  would  be  well  if  the  women 
of  America,  who  decline  the  brisk  walk  called  the 
"  constitutional,"  which  keeps  the  English  women 
roseate  and  strong,  would  one  hour — one  hour  of  the 
secular  afternoon  or  the  secular  evening,  turn  back 


THE   ROLLER-SKATE   CRAZE.  477 

on  darning  and  mending  and  bread-making  and 
housekeeping,  and  try  this  exhilarating  sport.  It 
would  bring  health  to  some  of  these  hollow  cheeks, 
it  would  bring  to  the  lack-lustre  eye  the  lost  light,  it 
would  give  strength  to  the  worn-out  body,  it  would 
straighten  the  stooped  shoulders  and  drive  away  con- 
sumption and  merciless  neuralgia,  and  nervous  pros- 
tration would  be  gone  forever.  The  great  demand 
in  this  country  is  some  reasonable,  honest,  healthful 
recreation  for  the  women  of  Arnrrica,  who  are  per- 
ishing for  the  lack  of  it.  It  would  be  well  if  the 
young  man  in  the  hotel  of  New  York  or  Brooklyn, 
while  during  the  day  he  purchases  goods  for  a  West- 
ern house,  should  in  the  evening  just  go  to  a  respect- 
able rink  and  hire  a  pair  of  skates,  and  interfering 
with  no  one,  independent  of  everybody  else,  take  a 
little  of  this  exercise  and  go  back  to  his  hotel  again. 

But  while  I  see  the  possibilities,  the  immense  pos- 
sibilities of  this  exercise — more  possibilities  in  it  for 
health  than  any  exercise  I  ever  heard  of  or  ever 
dreamed  of,  it  has  been  the  means  of  destruction  to 
body,  mind,  and  soul  of  a  good  many.  And  now 
come  the  restrictions. 

First  of  all,  let  us  have  no  more  of  the  vulgarity  or 
immodesty  of  young  women  going  along  the  streets 
of  these  cities  unattended  and  alone  to  any  place  of 
amusement,  whether  it  be  rink  or  anything  else.  Let 
them  be  chaperoned  by  mother,  or  older  sister,  or 
father,  or  brother.  If  in  a  skating  rink  a  man,  with- 
out proper  introduction,  tips  his  hat  to  a  lad)7,  let  th^ 
officer  of  the  rink  hasten  that  offender  to  the  door 
and  help  him  down  the  front  steps  with  all  modes  of 
accelerating  momentum  he  can  think  of.  If  these 
well-dressed  devils  who  haunt  skating  rinks,  and 


478  THE    ROLLER-SKATE   CRAZE. 

sometimes  stand  at  church  doors,  would  get  their 
quick  justice  done  them,  there  would  be  less  crime 
abroad  and  less  ruin  of  society,  and  more  honest 
amusemcMit  allowed,  and  more  pure  recreation. 

Another  remark  I  have  to  make,  and  that  is,  let  not 
the  bright  lights  and  enchanting  music  tempt  you  to 
senseless  prolongation  of  the  amusement.  Let  there 
be  no  strife  as  to  who  shall  be  the  swiftest  skater,  or 
shall  count  up  the  most  fabulous  number  of  circuits. 
Stop  when  you  hfse  got  all  the  health  there  is  in  the 
amusement.  Remember  that  the  laws  of  health  are 
the  laws  of  God.  Keep  the  Ten  Commandments 
written  on  your  nerves,  and  on  your  bones,  and  in 
the  tissue  of  your  lips,  and  on  your  lungs,  and  on 
your  heart.  Remember  that  at  the  door  of  every 
skating  rink  and  every  place  of  amusement,  honest  or 
dishonest,  on  every  cold  night  a  whole  group  of 
pneumonias  stand  ready  to  escort  you  to  the  sepul- 
chre. Cool  off  before  you  face  the  north  wind.  Ac- 
cept no  unwarranted  gallantries. 

Let  the  law  that  dominates  the  parlor,  dominate  the 
place  of  amusement.  And  I  want  all  the  people  to 
understand  that  the  evil  I  hint  at  is  not  a  character- 
istic of  skating  rinks  any  more  than  of  a  great  many 
other  places  and  a  great  many  other  conditions.  In 
other  words,  it  is  high  time  that  people  in  this  coun- 
try understood  that  flirtation  is  damnation.  When 
on  Broadway,  New  York,  or  Fulton  street,  Brooklyn, 
toward  the  evening  hour,  when  gentlemen  of  busi- 
ness are  returning  from  their  work,  I  see  the  daugh- 
ters of  respectable  families,  with  conspicuous  behavior 
and  a  giggle  intended  to  attract  masculine  attention, 
a  horror  goes  through  my  soul,  and  I  wonder  if  their 
parents  are  at  all  observant.  The  vast  majority  of 


THE    ROLLER-SKATE   CRAZE.  479 

those  who  make  everlasting  shipwreck  carry  that 
kind  of  sail.  The  pirates  of  death  attack  that  kind 
of  craft.  If  I  had  a  voice  loud  enough  to  be  heard 
from  the  Penobscot  to  the  Rio  Grande  I  would  cry 
out,  "  Flirtation  is  damnation  !  " 

A  craze  on  any  subject  is  deplorable.  Ball-playing, 
which  has  given  to  many  of  us  the  muscle  and  the 
strength  with  which  we  have  gone  on  to  discharge 
the  duties  of  life,  has  become  with  many  a  dementia, 
and  the  gamblers  have  clutched  it  with  their  fingers, 
and  from  the  innocent  game  of  ball  many  have  gone 
home  robbed  of  their  person,  worst  of  all,  robbed  of 
their  morals.  Is  that  anything  against  ball  playing? 
Boating,  which  with  many  of  us  who  lived  on  the 
banks  of  rivers  resulted  in  development  of  chest, 
which  has  allowed  us  easy  respiration  for  twenty, 
thirty,  forty  years,  and  which  would  have  given  stout 
lungs  to  many  who  long  ago  vanished  under  pulmo- 
nary complaints — innocent  boating  has  been  seized  up- 
on by  college  students,  who  have  sacrificed  book  for 
oar,  and  brain  for  muscle.  Victors  at  the  boat  race, 
dead  failures  in  all  the  practical  business  of  life.  Is 
that  anything  against  boating?  Strip  this  roller-skate 
excitement  of  the  craze,  and  substitute  common 
sense. 

There  is  another  very  important  thing  for  us  all 
to  remember — especially  those  of  us  who  have  got 
beyond  forty  years  of  age — and  that  is,  we  were  boys 
and  girls  once  ourselves.  From  the  memory  of  a 
great  many  good  people  that  seems  to  be  obliterated. 
Go  back  forty  years,  and  then  think  what  was  neces- 
sary for  you  then,  and  what  was  appropriate  for  you 
then.  Rheumatism  is  incompetent  to  give  law  to 
solid  ankles !  You  can  not  expect  people  to  have  the 


THE   ROLLER-SKATE  CRAZE. 

tastes  of  the  aged  before  they  get  to  thirty.  Do  not 
go  out  looking  for  golden  rod  and  china  asters  on  a 
May  morning.  These  people  who  have  the  tastes  of 
the  aged  before  they  get  to  the  thirties,  after  a  while 
arc  the  people  who  bore  the  life  out  of  prayer-meet- 
ings, and  turn  religion  into  a  sniffling  cant,  and 
disgust  the  world  with  that  which  ought  to  be 
attractive. 

Do  not  forget  that  we  once  enjoyed  the  hilarities 
of  life,  if  indeed  we  have  passed  along  so  far  that  we 
have  forgotten  it.  Ah !  no,  we  can  not  improve  on 
God's  arrangement.  God  knew  what  was  best.  He 
made  them  boys  and  girls,  and  He  intends  them  to 
stay  boys  and  girls  until  they  are  called  to  some  other 
condition.  They  will  come  to  the  tug  of  life  soon 
enough.  Do  not  be  envious  of  them,  do  not  be  jealous 
of  them.  They  have  the  same  battle  ahead  that  we 
are  fighting.  Let  them  now  cultivate  broad  shoulders 
and  brawny  arms  and  stout  health,  which  will  be 
taxed  to  the  utmost  long  after  you  and  I  are  under 
the  ground. 

Nothing  of  a  secular  nature  pleases  me  so  well  as 
to  see  the  young  people  laugh  and  have  a  good  time 
—I  mean  by  that  a  good  innocent  time — for  I  say  to 
myself,  in  a  little  while  all  the  generation  now  at  the 
front  will  pass  away,  and  these  will  come  on,  and 
they  will  have  the  battle  of  life  to  fight,  and  they  will 
have  burdens  to  carry,  and  oh,  how  many  sorrows, 
and  annoyances,  and  vexations !  I  rejoice  now  if 
they  have  amusement  and  hilarities.  Let  all  the  pro- 
prietors of  skating-rinks  and  all  parents  unite  in  one 
grand  conspiracy  to  overthrow  the  poor  health  and 
the  physical  stagnation  of  our  cities,  and  the  bad 
places  of  amusement  will  be  empty,  and  the  coming 


THE    ROLLER-SKATE   CRAZE.  481 

generation  will  have  a 'vigor  rebounding  and  athletic. 
Oh,  that  they  might  all  start  life  with  more  strength 
of  bodv  than  we  have  !  Their  battle  may  be  greater 
than  our  battle  has  been.  As  we  come  on  toward 
the  great  Armageddon  the  strife  is  going  to  be  the 
more  tremendous.  And  most  certainly  we  want 
human  longevity  improved.  We  want  the  average 
of  human  life,  instead  of  thirty,  one  hundred  and  fifty. 
Why  not?  In  olden  times  they  lived  two  hundred, 
three  hundred,  four  hundred,  five  hundred,  six  hun- 
dred years.  The  world  ought  to  be  as  healthy  now 
as  it  ever  was.  Many  of  the  marshes  have  been  filled 
up.  Medical  science  has  gone  forth,  and  crippled. 
and  balked,  and  destroyed  many  diseases,  and  why 
not  the  average  of  human  life  now  something  like 
what  it  used  to  be?  But  you  know  now  the  way  it 
is.  By  the  time  we  get  our  education,  or  learn  our 
trade,  and  get  fairly  started,  we  have  to  quit  because 
we  are  emeritus.  We  fall  at  the  opening  of  the 
great  war  of  existence  instead  of  at  the  close,  at  Bui/ 
Run  instead  of  Gettysburg. 

1  want  all  to  understand  that  our  amusements  and 
recreations  are  merely  intended  to  fit  us  for  use' 
fulness. 

I  hope  that  none  oi  you,  my  friends,  have  fallen 
into  the  delusion  that  your  mission  in  life  is  to  enjoy 
yourself.  You  just  hand  me  a  list  of  the  people  you 
find  at  all  hours  of  day  and  night  at  places  of  entertain- 
ment, and  in  one  minute  I  will  give  you  a  list  of  the 
people  who  are  sacrificing  themselves  for  both  worlds. 
Pepper,  and  salt,  and  sugar,  and  '  cinnamon  are  very 
important,  but  that  would  be  a  very  unhealthful  re- 
past that  had  nothing  else  on  the  table.  Amusements 
and  recreations  are  the  spice  and  condiment  of  the 

31 


482  THE    ROLLER-SKATE   CRAZE. 

great  banquet.  But  some  of  you  over-pleasuring 
people  are  feeding  the  body  and  soul  on  condiments. 
Ah  !  it  is  only  those  who  have  work  to  do,  and  are 
doing  it  well — it  is  only  such  persons  who  are  really 
entitled  to  the  amusements  and  recreations  of  this 
life,  I  know  many  people  think  this  is  a  sarcastic 
passage  which  says,  "  Rejoice,  O  young  man,  in  thy 
vouth,  and  let  thy  heart  cheer  thee  in  the  days  of  thy 
vouth,  but  know  thou  that  for  all  these  things  God 
will  bring  thee  into  judgment."  It  is  not  sarcastic,  it 
is  not  ironical ;  it  simply  means  to  say,  have  a  good 
tinfe,  have  a  real  good  time,  but  do  not  go  into  any- 
lliing  that  will  be  affrighted  by  the  judgment  throne, 
do  not  forget  your  duties,  do  not  forget  you  are  im- 
mortal. We  are  to  make  these  recreations  of  life 
preparations  for  practical  usefulness. 

Solon  made  a  law  that  once  every  year  every  man 
should  show  by  what  trade  or  occupation  he  got  his 
living,  and  if  he  could  not  show  some  trade  or  occu- 
pation by  which  he  got  his  living,  he  was  imprisoned 
and  punished  as  a  thief.  In  olden  time  when  a  man 
wanted  to  become  a  Roman  citizen  the  officer  of  the 
law  would  take  his  hand  and  feel  it;  and  if  the  hand 
felt  hard,  the  conclusion  was  that  the  man  was  indus- 
trious;  and  if  the  hand  felt  soft,  the  conclusion  was 
he  was  idle.  While  in  our  time  many  a  diligent  man 
has  a  soft  hand  for  the  reason  that  his  toil  is  with  the 
brain,  and  hence  the  palm  does  not  get  calloused, 
nevertheless  we  must  all  have  some  earnest  work  to 
do,  and  we  must  concentrate  on  that  work.  We  must 
make  our  amusements  a  re-enforcement  of  our  capac- 
ity. My  brother,  if  at  the  close  of  any  recreation  or 
amusement  you  go  home  at  night  and  cannot  go  down 
on  your  knees  and  say,  "  O  Lord,  bless  the  amuse- 


THE  "ROLLER-SKATE   CRAZE.  483 

ment  and  entertainment  of  this  night  to  my  better 
qualification  for  usefulness !  "  that  is  an  amusement  in 
which  you  ought  not  to  have  engaged.  Living  is  a 
tremendous  affair,  and  alas !  for  the  man  who  makes 
recreation  a  depletion  instead  of  an  augmentation. 


CHAPTER  XLIX. 

TOBACCO    AND    OPIUM. 

The  two  first  born  of  our  earth  were  the  grass 
blade  and  the  herb.  They  preceded  the  brute  cre- 
ation and  the  human  family — the  grass  for  the  animal 
creation,  the  herb  for  human  service.  The  cattle 
came  and  took  possession  of  their  inheritance,  the 
grass-blade  ;  man  came  and  took  possession  of  his  in- 
heritance, the  herb.  We  have  the  herb  for  food  as  in 
case  of  hunger,  for  narcotic  as  in  case  of  insomnia, 
for  anodyne  as  in  case  of  paroxysm,  for  stimulant  as 
when  the  pulses  flag  under  the  weight  of  disease. 
The  caterer  comes  and  takes  the  herb  ana  presents 
it  in  all  styles  of  delicacy.  The  physician  comes  and 
takes  the  herb  and  compounds  it  for  physical  recupe- 
ration. Millions  of  people  come  and  take  the  herb 
for  ruinous  physical  and  intellectual  delectation. 
The  herb,  which  was  divinely  created,  and  for  good 
purposes,  has  often  been  degraded  for  bad  results. 
There  is  a  useful  and  a  baneful  employment  of  the 
herbaceous  kingdom. 

There  sprang  up  in  Yucatan,  of  this  continent,  an 
herb  that  has  bewitched  the  world.  In  the  fifteenth 
century  it  crossed  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  captured 
Spain.  Afterward  it  captured  Portugal.  Then  the 
French  ambassadors  took  it  to  Paris,  and  it  captured 
the  French  Empire.  Then  Walter  Raleigh  took  it  to 
London,  and  it  captured  Great  Britain.  Nicotiana, 

484 


TOBACCO   AND   OPIUM.  483 

ascribed  to  that  genus  by  the  botanists,  but  we  all 
know  it  is  the  exhilarating,  elevating,  emparadising, 
nerve-shattering,  dyspepsia-breeding,  health-destroy- 
ing tobacco.  I  shall  not  in  my  remarks  be  offensively 
personal,  because  you  all  use  it,  or  nearly  all !  I  know 
by  experience  how  it  soothes  and  roseates  the  world, 
and  kindles  sociality,  and  I  also  know  some  of  its 
baleful  results.  I  was  its  slave,  and  by  the  grace  of 
God  I  have  become  its  conqueror.  Tens  of  thou- 
sands of  people  have  been  asking  the  question  during 
the  past  two  months,  asking  it  with  great  pathos  and 
great  earnestness  :  "Does  the  use  of  tobacco  produce 
cancerous  and  other  troubles?"  I  shall  not  answer 
the  question  in  regard  to  any  particular  case,  but 
shall  deal  with  the  subject  in  a  more  general  way. 

You  say  to  me,  "Did  God  not  create  tobacco?" 
Yes.  You  say  to  me,  "Is  not  God  good?"  Yes. 
Well,  then,  you  say,  "If  God  is  good,  and  He  created 
tobacco,  He  must  have  created  it  for  some  good  pur- 
pose." Yes,  your  logic  is  complete.  But  God  cre- 
ated the  common  sense  at  the  same  time,  by  which 
we  are  to  know  how  to  use  a  poison,  and  how  not  to 
use  it.  God  created  that  just  as  He  created  henbane 
and  mix  vomica,  and  copperas,  and  belladonna,  and 
all  other  poisons,  whether  directly  created  by  Him- 
self or  extracted  by  man. 

That  it  is  a  poison  no  man  of  common  sense  will 
deny.  A  case  was  reported  where  a  little  child  lay 
upon  its  mother's  lap,  and  one  drop  fell  from  a  pipe 
to  the  child's  lip  and  it  went  into  convulsions  and  into 
death.  But  you  say,  "Haven't  people  lived  on  in 
complete  use  of  it  to  old  age?"  Oh,  yes;  just  as  I 
have  seen  inebriates  seventy  years  old.  In  Boston, 
years  ago,  there  was  a  meeting  in  which  there  were 


486  TOBACCO   AND   OPIUM. 

several  centenarians,  and  they  were  giving  their 
experience,  and  one  centenarian  said  that  he  had  lived 
over  a  hundred  years,  and  that  he  ascribed  it  to  the 
fact  that  he  had  refrained  from  the  use  of  intoxicating 
liquors.  Right  after  him  another  centenarian  said 
he  had  lived  over  a  hundred  years,  and  ascribed  it 
to  the  fact  that  for  the  last  fifty  years  he  had  hardly 
seen  a  sober  moment.  It  is  an  amazing  thing  how 
many  outrages  men  may  commit  upon  their  physical 
system,  and  yet  live  on.  In  the  case  of  the  man  of 
the  jug,  he  lived  on  because  his  body  was  pickled. 
In  the  case  of  the  man  of  the  pipe,  he  lived  on 
because  his  body  turned  into  smoked  liver. 

But  are  there  no  truths  to  be  uttered  in  regard  to 
this  great  evil?  What  is  the  advice  to  be  given  to 
the  multitude  of  young  people  ?  What  is  the  advice 
you  are  going  to  give  to  your  children? 

First  of  all,  we  must  advise  them  to  abstain  from 
the  use  of  tobacco,  because  all  the  medical  fraternity 
of  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  agree  in 
ascribing  to  this  habit  terrific  unhealth.  The  men 
whose  lifetime  work  is  the  study  of  the  science  of 
health  say  so,  and  shall  I  set  up  my  opinion  against 
theirs?  Dr.  Agnew,  Dr.  Olcott,  Dr.  Barnes,  Dr. 
Rush,  Dr.  Mott,  Dr.  Harvey,  Dr.  Hosack— all  the 
doctors,  allopathic,  homoeopathic,  hydropathic,  eclec- 
tic, denounce  the  habit  as  a  matter  of  unhealth.  A 
distinguished  physician  declared  he  considered  the 
use  of  tobacco  caused  seventy  different  styles  of  dis- 
ease, and  he  says:  "  Of  all  the  cases  of  cancer  in  the 
mouth  that  have  come  under  my  observation,  almost 
in  every  case  it  has  been  ascribed  to  tobacco." 

The  united  testimony  of  all  physicians  is,  that  it 
depresses  the  nervous  system,  that  it  takes  away 


TOBACCO   AND   OPIUM.  487 

twenty-five  per  cent,  of  the  physical  vigor  of  this  gen- 
eration, and  that  it  goes  on  as  the  years  multiply,  and, 
damaging  this  generation  with  accumulated  curse,  it 
strikes  other  centuries.  And  if  it  is  so  deleterious  to 
the  body,  how  much  more  destructive  to  the  mind. 
An  eminent  physician,  who  was  the  superintendent  of 
the  insane  asylum  at  Northampton,  Mass.,  says : 
"  Fully  one-half  of  the  patients  we  get  in  our  asylum 
have  lost  their  intellect  through  the  use  of  tobacco." 
If  it  is  such  a  bad  thing  to  injure  the  body,  what  a 
bad  thing,  what  a  worse  thing  it  is  to  injure  the  mind, 
and  any  man  of  common  sense  knows  that  tobacco 
attacks  the  nervous  system,  and  everybody  knows 
that  the  nervous  system  attacks  the  mind. 

Beside  that,  all  reformers  will  tell  you  that  the  use 
of  tobacco  creates  an  unnatural  thirst,  and  it  is  the 
cause  of  drunkenness  in  America  to-day  more  than 
anything  else.  In  all  cases  where  you  find  men  tak- 
ing strong  drink,  you  find  they  use  tobacco.  There 
are  men  who  use  tobacco  who  do  not  take  strong 
drink,  but  all  who  use  strong  drink  use  tobacco,  and 
that  shows  beyond  controversy  there  is  an  affinity  be- 
tween the  two  products.  There  are  reformers  here 
to-day  who  will  testify  to  you  it  is  impossible  for  a 
man  to  reform  from  taking  strong  drink  until  he  quits 
tobacco.  In  many  of  the  cases  where  men  have  been 
reformed  from  strong  drink,  and  have  gone  back  to 
their  cups,  they  have  testified  that  they  first  touched 
tobacco,  and  then  they  surrendered  to  intoxicants. 

The  pathway  to  the  drunkard's  grave  and  the 
drunkard's  hell  is  strewn  thick  with  tobacco  leaves. 
What  has  been  the  testimony  on  this  subject  ?  Is  this 
a  mere  statement  of  a  preacher,  whose  business  it  is 
to  talk  morals,  or  is  the  testimony  of  the  world  just  as 


TOBACCO    AND    Ol'ITM. 

emphatic?  What  did  Benjamin  Franklin  say?  "1 
never  sa\v  a  well  man,  in  the  exercise  of  common 
sense,  who  would  say  that  tobacco  did  him  any 
good."  What  did  Thomas  Jefferson  say?  Certainly 
he  is  good  authority.  He  says  in  regard  to  the  cul- 
ture of  tobacco,  "It  is  a  culture  product! ye  of  infinite 
wretchedness."  What  did  Horace  Greeley  say  of  it? 
"  It  is  a  profiane  stench."  What  did  Daniel  Webster 
say  of  it?  "  If  those  men  must  smoke,  let  them  take 
the  horse-shed  ! "  One  reason  why  the  habit  goes  on 
from  destruction  to  destruction,  is  that  so  many  min- 
isters of  the  gospel  take  it.  They  smoke  themselves 
into  bronchitis,  and  then  the  dear  people  have  to  send 
them  to  Europe  to  get  them  restored  from  exhausting 
religious  services !  They  smoke  until  the  nervous 
system  is  shattered.  They  smoke  themselves  to 
death.  I  could  mention  the  names  of  five  distin- 
guished clergymen  who  died  of  cancer  in  the  mouth, 
and  the  doctor  said,  in  every  case,  it  was  the  result 
of  tobacco.  The  tombstone  of  many  a  minister  of 
religion  has  been  covered  all  over  with  handsome 
eulogy,  when  if  the  true  epitaph  had  been  written  it 
would  have  said  :  "  Here  lies  a  man  killed  by  too 
much  Cavendish?"  They  smoke  until  the  world  is 
blue,  and  their  theology  is  blue,  and  everything  is 
blue.  How  can  a  man  stand  in  the  pulpit  and  preach 
on  the  subject  of  temperance  when  he  is  indulging 
such  a  habit  as  that  ?  I  have  seen  a  cuspidor  in  a 
pulpit  into  which  the  holy  man  dropped  his  cud 
before  he  got  up  to  read  about  "Blessed  are  the  pure 
in  heart,"  and  to  read  about  the  rolling  of  sin  as  a 
sweet  morsel  under  the  tongue,  and  to  read  about 
the  unclean  animals  in  Leviticus  that  chewed  the 
cud. 


TOBACCO   AND   OPIUM.  489 

About  sixty-five  years  ago  a  student  at  Andover 
Theological  Seminary  graduated  into  the  ministry. 
He  had  an  eloquence  and  'a  magnetism  which  sent 
him  to  the  front.  Nothing  could  stand  before  him. 
But  in  a  few  months  he  was  put  in  an  insane  asylum, 
and  the  physician  said  tobacco  was  the  cause  of  the 
disaster.  It  was  the  custom  in  those  days  to  give  a 
portion  of  tobacco  to  every  patient  in  the  asylum. 
Nearly  twenty  years  passed  along,  and  that  man  was 
walking  the  floor  of  his  cell  in  the  asylum,  when  his 
reason  returned,  and  he  saw  the  situation,  and  he 
took  the  tobacco  from  his  mouth  and  threw  it 
against  the  iron  gate  of  the  place  in  which  he  was 
confined,  and  he  said:  "What  brought  me  here? 
What  keeps  me  here  ?  Tobacco !  tobacco !  God 
forgive  me,  God  help  me,  and  I  will  never  use  it 
again."  He  was  fully  restored  to  reason,  came  forth, 
preached  the  Gospel  of  Christ  for  some  ten  years, 
and  then  went  into  everlasting  blessedness. 

There  are  ministers  of  religion  now  in  this  country 
who  are  dying  by  inches  and  they  do  not  know  what 
is  the  matter  with  them.  They  are  being  killed 
by  tobacco.  They  are  despoiling  their  influence 
through  tobacco.  They  are  malodorous  with  tobacco. 
1  could  give  one  paragraph  of  history,  and  that 
would  be  my  own  experience.  It  took  ten  cigars  to 
make  one  sermon,  and  I  got  very  nervous,  and  I 
awakened  one  day  to  see  what  an  outrage  I  was  com- 
mitting upon  my  health  by  the  use  of  tobacco-  I 
was  about  to  change  settlement,  and  a  generous 
tobacconist  of  Philadelphia  told  me  if  I  would  come 
to  Philadelphia  and  be  his  pastor  he  would  give  me 
all  the  cigars  I  wanted  for  nothing,  all  the  rest  of  my 
life.  I  halted.  I  said  to  myself,  "  If  i.  smoke  more 


4CP  TOBACCO   AXD   OPIUM. 

than  I  ought  to  now  in  these  war  times,  and  when 
my  salary  is  small,  what  would  I  do  if  I  had  gratui- 
tous and  unlimited  supply  ?"  Then  and  there,  twenty- 
four  years  ago,  T  quit  once  and  forever.  It  made  a 
new  man  of  me.  Much  of  the  time  the  world  looked 
blue  before  that  because  I  was  looking  through 
tobacco  smoke.  Ever  since  the  world  has  been  full 
of  sunshine,  and  though  I  have  done  as  much  work 
as  any  one  of  my  age,  God  has  blessed  me,  it  seems 
to  me,  with  the  best  health  a  man  ever  had. 

I  say  that  no  minister  of  religion  can  afford  to 
smoke.  Put  in  my  hand  all  the  money  expended  by 
Christian  men  in  Brooklyn  for  tobacco,  and  I  will 
support  three  orphan  asylums  as  well  and  as  grandly 
as  the  three  great  orphan  asylums  already  established. 
Put  into  my  hand  the  money  spent  by  Christians  of 
America  for  tobacco,  and  I  will  clothe,  shelter  and 
feed  all  the  suffering  poor  of  the  continent.  The 
American  chTirch  gives  a  million  dollars  a  year  for 
the  salvation  of  the  heathen,  and  American  Christians 
smoke  five  million  dollars'  worth  of  tobacco. 

I  stand  here  to-day  in  the  presence  of  a  vast  multi- 
tude of  young  people  who  are  forming  their  habits. 
Between  seventeen  and  twenty-five  years  of  age  a 
great  many  young  men  get  on  them  habits  in  the  use 
of  tobacco  that  they  never  get  over.  Let  me  say  to 
all  my  young  friends  : 

You  cannot  afford  to  smoke  ;  you  cannot  afford  to 
chew.  You  either  take  very  good  tobacco,  or  you 
take  very  cheap  tobacco,  if  it  is  cheap  T  will  tell  you 
why  it  is  cheap.  It  is  made  of  burdock  and  lamp- 
black and  sawdust  and  colt's  foot  and  plantain  leaves 
and  fuller's  earth  and  salt  and  alum  and  lime  and  a 
little  tobacco,  and  you  cannot  ;ifford  to  put  such  a 


TOBACCO    AND    OPIUM.  49! 

mess  as  that  in  your  mouth.  But  if  you  use  expensive 
tobacco,  do  you  not  think  it  would  be  better  for  you  to 
take  that  amount  of  money  which  you  are  now  ex- 
pending for  this  herb,  and  which  you  will  expend 
during  the  course  of  your  life  if  you  keep  the  habit 
up,  and  with  it  buy  a  splendid  farm,  and  make  the 
afternoon  and  the  evening  of  your  life  comfortable  ? 

There  are  young  men  whose  life  is  going  out  inch 
by  inch  from  cigarettes.  Now,  do  you  not  think  it 
would  be  well  to  listen  to  the  testimony  of  a  mer- 
chant of  New  York,  who  said  this  :  "  In  early  life  I 
smoked  six  cigars  a  day  at  six  and  a  half  cents  each. 
They  averaged  that.  I  thought  to  myself  one  day, 
I'll  just  put  aside  all  I  consume  in  cigars  and  all  I 
would  consume  if  I  keep  on  in  the  habit,  and  I'll  see 
what  it  will  come  to  by  compound  interest."  And 
he  gives  this  tremendous  statistic :  "  Last  July  com- 
pleted thirty-nine  years  since,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
I  was  emancipated  from  the  filthy  habit,  and  the 
saving  amounted  to  the  enormous  sum  of  $29,102.03 
by  compound  interest.  We  lived  in  the  city,  but  the 
children,  who  had  learned  something  of  the  enjoy- 
ment of  country  life  from  their  annual  visits  to  their 
grandparent,  longed  for  a  home  among  the  green 
fields.  I  found  a  very  pleasant  place  in  the  country 
for  sale.  The  cigar  money  came  into  requisition,  and 
I  found  it  amounted  to  a  sufficient  sum  to  purchase 
the  place,  and  it  is  mine.  Now,  boys,  you  take  your 
choice.  Smoking  without  a  home,  or  a  home  with-' 
out  smoking "  This  is  common  sense  as  well  as' 
religion. 

I  must  say  a  word  to  my  friends  who  smoke  the 
best  tobacco,  and  who  could  stop  at  any  time.  What 
is  your  Christian  influence  in  this  respect?  What  is 


492  TOBACCO   AND   OPIUM. 

vour  influence  upon  young  men  ?  Do  you  not  think 
it  would  be  better  for  you  to  exercise  a  little  self- 
denial?  People  wondered  why  George  Briggs,  Gov- 
ernor of  Massachusetts,  wore  a  cravat  but  no  collar- 
"  Oh,"  they  said,  •'  it  is  an  absurd  eccentricity." 

This  was  the  history  of  the  cravat  without  any 
collar  :  For  many  years  before  he  had  been  talking 
with  an  inebriate,  trying  to  persuade  him  to  give  up 
the  habit  of  drinking,  and  he  said  to  the  inebriate, 
"Your  habit  is  entirely  unnecessary."  "Ah!"  re- 
plied the  inebriate,  "  we  do  a  great  many  things  that 
are  unnecessary.  It  isn't  necessary  that  you  should 
have  that  collar."  "  Well,"  said  Mr.  Briggs,  "  I'll 
never  wear  a  collar  again  if  you  will  stop  drinking." 
"Agreed,"  said  the  other.  They  joined  hands  in  a 
pledge  that  they  kept  for  twenty  years — kept  until 
death.  That  is  magnificent.  That  is  Gospel,  prac- 
tical Gospel,  worthy  of  George  Briggs,  worthy  of 
you.  Self-denial  for  others.  Subtraction  from  our 
advantage  that  there  may  be  an  addition  to  some- 
body else's  advantage. 

But  what  I  have  said  has  been  chiefly  appropriate 
for  men.  Now  my  subject  widens,  and  shall  be  ap- 
propriate for  both  sexes.  In  all  ages  of  the  world 
there  has  been  a  search  for  some  herb  or  flower  that 
would  stimulate  lethargy  and  compose  grief .  Among 
the  ancient  Greeks  and  Egyptians  they  found  some- 
thing they  called  nepenthe,  and  the  Theban  women 
knew  how  to  compound  it.  If  a  person  should  chew 
a  few  of  these  leaves  their  grief  would  be  imme- 
diately whelmed  with  hilarity.  Nepenthe  passed  out 
from  the  consideration  of  the  world,  and  then  came 
hasheesh,  which  is  from  the  Indian  hemp.  It  is  man- 
ufactured from  the  flowers  at  the  top.  The  workman 


TOBACCO    AND    OPIUM.  493 

with  leathern  apparel  walks  through  the  field,  and 
the  exudation  of  the  plants  adheres  to  the  leathern 
garments,  and  then  the  man  comes  out,  and  scrapes 
off  this  exudation,  and  it  is  mixed  with  aromatics, 
and  becomes  an  intoxicant  that  has  brutalized  whole 
nations.  Its  first  effect  is  sight,  spectacle  glorious 
and  grand  beyond  all  description,  but  afterward  it 
pulls  down  body,  mind,  and  soul,  into  anguish. 

I  knew  one  of  the  most  brilliant  men  of  our  time. 
His  appearance  in  a  newspaper  column,  or  a  book,  or 
a  magazine,  was  an  enchantment.  In  the  course  of  a 
half  hour  he  could  produce  more  wit  and  more  valu- 
able information  than  any  man  I  ever  heard  talk. 
But  he  chewed  hasheesh.  He  first  took  it  out  of  cu- 
riosity to  see  whether  the  power  said  to  be  attached 
really  existed.  He  took  it.  He  got  under  the  power 
of  it.  He  tried  to  break  loose.  He  put  his  hand  in 
the  cocatrice's  den  to  see  whether  it  would  bite,  and 
he  found  out  to  his  own  undoing.  His  friends 
gathered  around  and  tried  to  save  him,  but  he  could 
not  be  saved.  The  father,  a  minister  of  the  Gospel, 
prayed  with  him  and  counseled  him,  and  out  of  a 
comparativelv  small  salary  employed  the  first  medical 
advice  of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Edinburgh,  Paris, 
London,  and  Berlin,  for  he  was  his  only  son.  No 
help  came.  First  his  tody  gave  way  in  pangs  and 
convulsions  of  suffering.  Then  his  mind  gave  way, 
and  he  became  a  raving  maniac.  Then  his  soul  wenc 
out,  blaspheming  God,  into  a  starless  eternit\-.  He 
died  at  thirty  years  of  age.  Behold  the  work  of  ac- 
cursed hasheeh. 

But  I  must  put  my  emphasis  upon  the  use  of  opium. 
It  is  made  from  the  white  poppy.  It  is  not  a  new- 
discovery.  Three  hundred  years  before  Christ  we 


494  T(>HACO>    AND    OPIUM. 

read  of  it,  but  it  was  not  until  the  seventh  century 
that  it  took  up  its  march  of  death,  and  passing  out  of 
the  curative  and  the  medicinal,  through  smoking  and 
mastication,  it  has  become  the  curse  of  nations.  In 
1861  there  were  imported  into  this  country  one  hun- 
dred and  seven  thousand  pounds  of  opium.  In  1880, 
nineteen  years  after,  there  were  imported  five  hun- 
dred and  thirty  thousand  pounds  of  opium.  In  1876 
there  were  in  this  country  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  thousand  opium  consumers.  Now  it  is  estimated 
that  there  are  in  the  United  States  to-day  six  hun- 
dred thousand  victims  of  opium.  It  is  appalling. 

We  do  not  know  why  some  families  do  not  get  on. 
There  is  something  mysterious  about  them.  The 
opium  habit  is  so  stealthy,  it  is  so  deceitful,  and  it  is 
so  deathful  you  can  cure  a  hundred  men  of  strong 
drink  where  you  can  cure  one  opium-eater. 

I  have  knelt  down  in  this  very  church  by  those  who 
were  elegant  in  apparel,  and  elegant  in  appearance, 
and  from  the  depths  of  my  soul  we  cried  out  for 
God's  rescue.  Somehow  it  did  not  come.  In  many 
a  household  only  a  physician  and  pastor  know  it — 
the  physician  called  in  for  physical  relief,  the  pastor 
called  in  for  spiritual  relief,  and  they  both  fail.  The 
physician  confesses  his  defeat,  the  minister  of  religion 
confesses  his  defeat,  for  somehow  God  does  not  seem 
to  hear  a  prayer  offered  for  an  opium-eater.  His 
grace  is  infinite,  and  I  have  been  told  there  are  cases 
of  reformation.  I  never  saw  one.  I  say  this  not  to 
wound  the  feelings  of  any  who  may  feel  this  awful 
grip,  but  to  utter  a  potent  warning  that  you  stand 
back  from  that  gate  of  hell.  Oh,  man,  oh,  woman, 
tampering  with  this  great  evil,  have  you  fallen  back 
on  this  as  a  permanent  resource,  because  of  some 


TOBACCO   AND    OPIUM.  495 

physical  distress  or  mental  anguish  ?  Better  stop. 
The  ecstacies  do  not  pay  for  the  horrors.  The  Para- 
dise is  followed  too  soon  by  the  Pandemonium.  Mor 
phia,  a  blessing  of  God  for  the  relief  of  sudden  pain 
and  of  acute  dementia,  misappropriated  and  never 
intended  for  permanent  use. 

It  is  not  merely  the  barbaric  fanatics  that  are  taken 
down  by  it.  Did  you  ever  read  De  Quincey's  Con- 
fessions of  an  Opium-eater?  He  says  that  during  the 
first  ten  years  the  habit  handed  to  him  all  the  keys 
of  Paradise,  but  it  would  take  something  as  mighty 
as  De  Quincey's  pen  to  describe  the  consequent  hor- 
rors. There  is  nothing  that  I  have  ever  read  about 
the  tortures  of  the  damned  that  seemed  more  horrible 
than  those  which  De  Quincey  says  he  suffered.  Sam- 
uel Taylor  Coleridge  first  conquered  the  world  with 
his  exquisite  pen,  and  then  was  conquered  by  opium. 
The  most  brilliant,  the  most  eloquent  lawyer  of  the 
nineteenth  century  went  down  under  its  power,  and 
there  is  a  vast  multitude  of  men  and  women — but 
more  women  than  men — who  are  going  into  the  dun- 
geon of  that  awful  incarceration. 

The  worst  thing  about  it  is,  it  takes  advantage  of 
one's  weakness.  De  Quincey  says :  "  I  got  to  be  an 
opium-eater  on  account  of  my  rheumatism."  Cole- 
ridge says  ;  "  I  got  to  be  an  opium-eater  on  account 
of  my  sleeplessness."  For  what  are  you  taking  it? 
For  God's  sake  do  not  take  it  long.  The  wealthiest, 
the  grandest  families  going  down  under  its  power. 
Twenty-five  thousand  victims  of  opium  in  Chicago. 
Twenty-five  thousand  victims  of  opium  in  St.  Louis, 
and,  according  to  that  average,  seventy-five  thousand 
victims  of  opium  in  New  York  and  Brooklyn. 

The  clerk  of  a  drugstore  says  :     "  I  can  tell  them 


496  TOBACCO  AND   OPIUM. 

when  they  come  in  ;  there  is  something  about  their 
complexion,  something  about  their  manner,  some- 
thing about  the  look  of  their  eyes,  that  shows  they 
are  victims."  Some  in  the  struggle  to  get  away 
from  it  try  chloral.  Whole  tons  of  chloral  manu- 
factured in  Germany  every  vear.  Baron  Liebig  says 
he  knows  one  chemist  in  Germany  who  manufactures 
a  half  ton  of  chloral  every  week.  Beware  of  hydrate 
of  chloral  !  It  is  coming  on  with  mighty  tread  to 
curse  these  cities.  But  I  am  chiefly  under  this 
head  speaking  of  morphine.  The  devil  of  morphia 
is  going  to  be  in  this  country,  in  my  opinion,  mightier 
than  the  devil  of  alcohol. 

By  the  power  of  the  Christian  pulpit,  by  the  power 
of  the  Christianized  printing-press,  by  the  power  of 
the  Lord  God  Almighty,  all  these  evils  are  going  to 
be  extirpated — all,  all,  and  you  have  a  work  in  re- 
gard to  that,  and  I  have  a  work.  But  what  we  do 
we  had  better  do  right  away.  The  clock  ticks  now? 
and  we  hear  it  ;  after  awhile  the  clock  will  tick  and 
we  will  not  hear  it. 


CHAPTER  L. 

SOCIAL   DISSIPATION. 

I  am  not  to  discuss  the  old  question,  ]<i 
right  or  wrong?  but  I  am  to  discuss  the  question, 
Does  dancing  take  too  much  place  and  occupy  too 
much  time  in  modern  society?  and  in  my  remarks 
I  hope  to  carry  with  me  the  earnest  conviction  of  all 
thoughtful  persons,  and  I  believe  I  will. 

You  will  all  admit,  whatever  you  think  of  that 
style  of  amusement  and  exercise,  that  from  many 
circles  it  has  crowded  out  all  intelligent  conversation. 
You  will  also  admit  that  it  has  made  the  condition 
of  those  who  do  not  dance,  either  because  they  do 
not  know  how,  or  because  they  have  not  the  health 
to  endure  it,  or  because  through  conscientious 
scruples  they  must  decline  the  exercise,  very  uncom- 
fortable. You  will  also  admit,  all  of  you,  that  it  has 
passed  in  many  cases  from  an  amusement  to  a  dissi- 
pation, and  you  are  easily  able  to  understand  the 
bewilderment  of  the  educated  Chinaman  who,  stand- 
ing in  the  brilliant  circle  where  there  was  dancing 
going  on  four  or  five  hours,  and  the  guests  seemed 
exhausted,  turned  to  the  proprietor  of  the  house  and 
said  :  "  Why  don't  you  allow  your  servants  to  do 
this  for  you  ?" 

You  are  also  willing  to  admit,  whatever  be  your 
idea  in  regard  to  the  amusement  I  am  speaking  of, 
and  whatever  be  vour  idea  of  the  old-fashioned 

497  j* 


SOCIAL    DISSIPATION. 

square  dance,  and  of  many  of  the  processional  romps 
in  which  1  can  see  no  evil,  the  round  dance  is  admin- 
istrative ot  evil,  and  ought  to  be  driven  out  of  all 
respectable  circles.  I  am  by  natural  temperament 
and  religious  theory  opposed  to 'the  position  taken  by 
all  those  who  are  horrified  at  playfulness  on  the  part 
of  the  young,  and  who  think  that  all  questions  are 
decided — questions  of  decency  and  morals — by  the 
position  of  the  feet,  while  on  the  other  hand,  I  can  see 
nothing  but  ruin,  temporal  and  eternal,  for  those  who 
go  into  the  dissipations  of  social  life,  dissipations 
which  have  already  despoiled  thousands  of  young 
men  and  young  women  of  all  that  is  noble  in  char- 
acter, and  useful  in  life. 

Dancing  is  the  graceful  motion  of  the  body  ad- 
justed by  art  to  the  sound  and  measures  of  musical 
instrument  or  of  the  human  voice.  All  nations  have 
danced.  The  ancients  thought  that  Castor  and  Pol- 
lux taught  the  art  to  the  Lacedaemonians.  But  who- 
ever started  it,  all  climes  have  adopted  it.  In  ancient 
times  they  had  the  festal  dance,  the  military  dance, 
the  mediatorial  dance,  the  bacchanalian  dance,  and 
queens  and  lords  swayed  to  and  fro  in  the  gardens, 
and  the  rough  backwoodsman  with  this  exercise 
awakened  the  echo  of  the  forest.  There  is  some- 
thing in  the  sound  of  livelv  music  to  evoke  the 
movement  of  the  hand  and  foot,  whether  cultured  or 
uncultured.  Passing  down  the  street,  we  uncon- 
sciously keep  step  to  the  sound  of  the  brass  band, 
while  the  Christian  in  church  with  his  foot  beats  time 
while  his  soul  rises  upon  some  great  harmony.  While 
this  is  so  in  civilized  lands,  the  red  men  of  the  forest 
have  their  scalp  dances,  their  green-corn  dances,  their 
war  dances. 


SOCIAL   DISSIPATION.  499 

In  ancient  times  the  exercise,  was  so  utterly  and 
completely  depraved  that  the  Church  anathematized 
it.  The  old  Christian  fathers  expressed  themselves 
most  vehemently  against  it.  St.  Chrysostom  says: 
"  The  feet  were  not  given  for  dancing,  but  to  walk 
modestly,  not  to  leap  impudently  like  camels."  One 
of  the  dogmas  of  the  ancient  Church  reads:  "A 
dance  is  the  devil's  possession,  and  he  that  entereth 
into  a  dance  entereth  into  his  possession.  As  many 
paces  as  a  man  makes  in  dancing,  so  many  paces  does 
he  make  to  hell."  Elsewhere  the  old  dogmas  declared 
this  "The  woman  that  singeth  in  the  dance  is  the 
princess  of  the  devil,  and  those  that  answer  are  her 
clerks,  and  the  beholders  are  his  friends,  and  the 
music  are  his  bellows,  and  the  fiddlers  are  the  min- 
isters of  the  devil.  For,  as  when  hogs  are  strayed, 
if  the  hogsherd  call  one,  all  assemble  together,  so 
when  the  devil  calleth  one  woman  to  sing  in  the 
dance,  or  to  play  on  some  musical  instrument,  pres- 
ently all  the  dancers  gather  together."  This  indis- 
criminate and  universal  denunciation  of  the  exercise 
came  from  the  fact  that  it  was  utterly  and  completely 
depraved. 

But  we  are  not  to  discuss  the  customs  of  the  olden 
times,  but  customs  now.  We  are  not  to  take  the  evi- 
dence of  the  ancient  fathers,  but  our  own  conscience, 
enlightened  by  the  Word  of  God,  is  to  be  the  stan- 
dard. Oh,  bring  no  harsh  criticism  upon  the  young. 
I  would  not  drive  out  from  their  soul  all  the  hilarities 
of  life.  I  do  not  believe  that  the  inhabitants  of  ancient 
Wales,  when  they  stepped  to  the  sound  of  the  rustic 
harp,  went  down  to  ruin.  I  believe  God  intended  the 
young  people  to  laugh  and  romp  and  play.  I  do  not 
believe  God  would  have  put  exuberance  in  the  soul 


5<X>  SOCIAL    DISSIPATION. 

and  exuberance  in  the  body  if  He  had  not  intended 
they  should  in  some  wise  exercise  it  and  demonstrate 
it.  If  a  mother  joins  hands  with  her  children  and 
cross  the  floor  to  the  sound  of  music,  I  see  no  harm. 
If  a  group  of  friends  cross  and  recross  the  room  to 
the  sound  of  piano  well  played,  I  see  no  harm.  If  a 
company,  all  of  whom  are  known  to  host  and  hostess 
as  reputable,  cross  and  recross  the  room  to  the  sound 
of  musical  instrument,  I  see  no  harm.  I  tried  for  a 
long  while  to  see  harm  in  it.  1  could  not  see  any 
harm  in  it.  I  never  shall  see  any  harm  in  that.  Our 
men  need  to  be  kept  young,  young  for  many  years 
longer  than  they  are  kept  young.  Never  since  my 
boyhood  days  have  I  had  more  sympathy  with  the 
innocent  hilarities  of  life  than  1  have  now.  What 
though  we  have  felt  heavy  burdens  !  What  though 
we  have  had  to  endure  hard  knocks!  Is  that  any 
reason  why  we  should  stand  in  the  way  of  those  who, 
unstung  of  life's  misfortunes,  are  full  of  exhilaration, 
and  full  of  glee  ? 

God  bless  the  young!  They  will  have  to  wait 
man}'  a  long  year  before  they  hear  me  say  anything 
that  would  depress  their  ardor  or  clip  their  wings,  or 
make  them  believe  that  life  is  hard  and  cold  and 
repulsive.  It  is  not.  I  tell  them,  judging  from  my 
own  experience,  that  they  will  be  treated  a  great  deal 
better  than  they  deserve.  We  have  no  right  to 
grudge  the  innocent  hilarities  to  the  young. 

As  we  go  on  in  years  let  us  remember  that  we  had 
our  gleeful  times;  let  us  be  able  to  say,  "  We  had 
our  good  times,  let  others  have  their  good  times." 
Let  us  willingly  resign  our  place  to  those  who  are 
coming  after  us.  I  will  cheerfully  give  them  every- 
thing— my  house,  my  books,  my  position  in  society, 


SOCIAL    DISSIPATION.  5OI 

my  heritage.  After  twenty,  forty,  fifty  years  we 
have  been  drinking  out  of  the  cup  of  this  life,  do  not 
let  us  begrudge  the  passing  of  it  that  others  may 
take  a  drink.  But  while  all  this  is  so,  we  can  have 
no  sympathy  with  sinful  indulgences,  and  I  am  going 
to  speak  in  regard  to  some  of  them,  though  I  should 
tread  on  the  long  trail  of  some  popular  vanities. 
What  are  the  dissipations  of  social  life  to-day,  and 
what  are  the  dissipations  of  the  ballroom  ?  In  some 
cities  and  in  some  places  reaching  all  the  year  round, 
in  other  places  only  in  the  summer  time  and  at  the 
watering-places.  There  are  dissipations  of  social  life 
that  are  cutting  a  very  wide  swathe  with  the  sickle 
of  death,  and  hundreds  and  thousands  are  going 
clown  under  these  influences,  and  my  subject  in 
application  is  as  wide  as  the  continent,  and  as  wide  as 
Christendom.  The  whirlpool  of  social  dissipation  is 
drawing  down  some  of  the  brightest  craft  that  ever 
sailed  the  sea — thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of 
the  bodies  and  souls  annually  consumed  in  the  con- 
flagration of  ribbons. 

Social  dissipation  is  the  abettor  of  pride,  it  is  the 
instigator  of  jealousy,  it  is  the  sacrificial  altar  ot 
health,  it  is  the  defiler  of  the  soul,  it  is  the  avenue  of 
lust,  and  it  is  the  curse  of  every  town  in  America. 
Social  dissipation.  It  may  be  hard  to  draw  the  line 
and  say  that  this  is  right  on  the  one  side,  and  that  is 
wrong  on  the  other  side.  It  is  not  necessary  that 
we  do  that,  for  God  has  put  a  throne  in  every  man's 
soul,  and  I  appeal  to  that  throne  to-day.  When  a 
man  does  wrong  he  knows  he  does  wrong,  and  when 
he  does  right  he  knows  he  does  right,  and  to  that 
throne  that  Almighty  God  lifted  in  the  heart  of 
every  man  and  woman,  I  appeal. 


5O2  SOCIAL    DISSIPATION. 

As  to  the  physical  ruin  wrought  by  the  dissipa- 
tions of  social  life,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  What 
may  \ve  expect  of  people  who  work  all  day  and 
dance  all  night?  After  awhile  they  will  be  thrown 
on  society,  nervous,  exhausted  imbeciles.  These 
people  who  indulge  in  the  suppers  and  the  midnight 
revels  and  then  go  home  in  the  cold  unwrapped  in 
limbs,  will  after  awhile  be  found  to  have  been  written 
down  in  God's  eternal  records  as  suicides,  as  much 
suicides  as  if  they  had  taken  their  life  with  a  pistol, 
or  a  knife,  or  strychnine. 

How  many  people  in  America  have  stepped  from 
the  ballroom  into  the  graveyard !  Consumptions 
and  swift  neuralgias  are  close  on  their  track.  Amid 
many  of  the  glittering  scenes  of  social  life  in  America, 
diseases  stand  right  and  left,  and  balance  and  chain. 
The  breath  of  the  sepulchre  floats  up  through  the 
perfume,  and  the  froth  of  Death's  lip  bubbles  up  in 
the  champagne.  I  am  told  that  in  some  parts  of  this 
country,  in  some  of  the  cities,  there  are  parents  who 
have  actually  given  up  housekeeping  and  gone  to 
boarding,  that  they  may  give  their  time  inimitably  to 
social  dissipations.  I  have  known  such  cases.  I  have 
known  family  after  family  blasted  in  that  way,  in 
one  of  the  other  cities  where  I  preached.  Father 
and  mother  turning  their  back  upon  all  quiet  culture 
and  all  the  amenities  of  home,  leading  forth  their 
entire  familv  in  the  wrong  direction.  Annihilated, 
worse  than  annihilated — for  there  are  some  things 
worse  than  annihilation.  I  give  you  the  history  ol 
more  than  one  family  in  America,  when  I  say  they 
went  on  in  the  dissipations  of  social  life  until  the 
father  dropped  into  a  lower  style  of  dissipation,  and 
after  awhile  the  son  was  tossed  out  into  society  a 


SOCIAL    DISSIPATION.  503 

nonentity,  and  after  awhile  the  daughter  eloped  with 
a  French  dancing-master,  and  after  awhile  the  mother, 
getting  on  further  and  further  in  years,  tries  to  hide 
the  wrinkles,  but  fails  in  the  attempt,  trying  all  the 
arts  of  the  belle,  an  old  flirt,  a  poor,  miserable  butter- 
fly without  any  wings. 

Let  me  tell  you  that  the  dissipations  of  American 
life,  of  social  life  in  America,  are  despoiling  the  use- 
fulness of  a  vast  multitude  of  people.  What  do  those 
people  care  about  the  fact  that  there  are  whole 
nations  in  sorrow  and  suffering  and  agony,  when  they 
have  for  consideration  the  more  important  question 
about  the  size  of  a  glove,  or  the  tie  of  a  cravat? 
Which  one  of  them  ever  bound  up  the  wounds  of 
the  hospital?  Which  one  of  them  ever  went  out  to 
care  for  the  poor?  Which  of  them  do  you  find  in 
the  haunts  of  sin,  distributing  tracts?  They  live  on 
themselves,  and  it  is  very  poor  pasture. 

Oh  !  what  a  belittling  process  to  the  human  mind 
this  everlasting  question  about  dress,  this  discussion 
of  fashionable  infinitesimals,  this  group  looking  ask- 
ance at  the  glass,  wondering,  with  an  infinity  of 
earnestness,  how  that  last  geranium  leaf  does  look — 
this  shriveling  of  a  man's  moral  dignity  until  it  is  not 
observable  to  the  naked  eye,  this  Spanish  inquisition 
of  a  tight  shoe,  this  binding  up  of  an  immortal  soul  in 
a  ruffle,  this  pitching  off  of  an  immortal  nature  over 
the  rocks,  when  God  intended  it  for  great  and  ever- 
lasting uplifting. 

You  know  as  well  as  I  do  that  the  dissipations  of 
social  life  in  America  to-day  are  destroying  thou- 
sands and  tens  of  thousands  of  people,  and  it  is  time 
that  the  pulpits  lift  their  voice  against  them,  for  I 
now  prophecy  the  eternal  misfortune  of  all  those  who 


504  SOCIAL   DISSIPATION. 

enter  the  rivalry.  When  did  the  white,  glistening 
boards  of  a  dissipated  ballroom  ever  become  the 
road  to  heaven?  When  was  a  torch  for  eternity 
ever  lighted  at  the  chandelier  of  a  dissipated  scene  ? 
From  a  table  spread  after  such  an  excited  and  dese- 
crated scene  who  ever  went  home  to  pray  ? 

In  my  parish  of  Philadelphia  there  was  a  young 
woman  brilliant  as  a  spring  morning.  She  gave  her 
life  to  the  world.  She  would  come  to  religious 
meetings  and  under  conviction  would  for  a  little 
while  begin  to  pray,  and  then  would  rush  off  again 
into  the  discipleship  of  the  world.  She  had  all  the 
world  could  offer  of  brilliant  social  position.  One 
day  a  flushed  and  excited  messenger  asked  me  to 
hasten  to  her  house,  for  she  was  dying.  I  entered 
the  room.  There  were  the  physicians,  there  was  the 
mother,  there  lay  this  disciple  of  the  world.  I  asked 
her  some  questions  in  regard  to  the  soul.  She  made 
no  answer.  I  knelt  down  to  pray.  I  rose  again,  and 
desiring  to  get  some  expression  in  regard  to  her 
eternal  interests,  I  said:  "Have  you  any  hope?" 
and  then  for  the  first  her  lips  moved  in  a  whisper  as 
she  said  :  "No  hope!"  Then  she  died.  The  world, 
she  served  it,  and  the  world  helped  her  not  in  the 
last. 

I  would  wish  that  I  could  marshal  all  the  young 
people  in  this  audience  to  an  appreciation  of  the  fact 
that  you  have  an  earnest  work  in  life,  and  your 
amusements  and  recreations  are  only  to  help  you 
along  in  that  work.  At  the  time  of  a  religious 
awakening,  a  Christian  young  woman  spoke  to  a 
man  in  regard  to  his  soul's  salvation.  He  floated  out 
.into  the  world.  After  awhile  she  became  worldly  in 
her  Christian  profession.  The  man  said  one  day, 


SOCIAL  DISSIPATION.  505 

"  Well,  I  am  as  safe  as  she  is.  I  was  a  Christian,  she 
said  she  was  a  Christian.  She  talked  with  me  about 
my  soul ;  if  she  is  safe  I  am  safe."  Then  a  sudden  acci- 
dent took  him  off,  without  an  opportunity  to  utter 
one  word  of  prayer. 

Do  you  not  realize,  have  you  not  noticed,  young 
men  and  old — have  you  not  noticed  that  the  dissi- 
pations of  social  life  are  blasting  and  destroying  a 
vast  multitude  ? 


CHAPTER  LI. 

SPIRITUALISM   AN   IMPOSTURE. 

We  are  surrounded  by  mystery.  Before  us,  behind 
us,  to  the  right  of  us,  to  the  left  of  us,  mystery. 
There  is  a  vast  realm  unexplored,  that  science,  I  have 
no  doubt,  will  yet  map  out.  He  who  explores  that 
realm  will  do  the  world  more  service  than  did  ever 
a  Columbus  or  an  Amerigo  Vespucci.  There  are  so 
many  things  that  can  not  be  accounted  for,  so  many 
sounds  and  appearances  which  defy  acoustics  and  in- 
vestigation, so  many  things  approximating  to  the 
spectral,  so  many  effects  which  do  not  seem  to  have  a 
sufficient  cause.  The  wall  between  the  spiritual  and 
the  material  is  a  very  thin  wall. 

That  there  are  communications  between  this  world 
and  the  next  world  there  can  be  no  doubt,  the  spirits 
of  our  departed  going  from  this  world  to  that,  and, 
according  to  the  Bible,  ministering  spirits  coming 
from  that  to  this.  I  do  not  know  but  that  some  time 
there  may  be  complete,  and  constant,  and  unmistak- 
able lines  of  communication  opened  between  this 
world  and  the  next. 

To  unlatch  the  door  between  the  present  state  and 
the  future  state  all  the  fingers  of  superstition  have 
been  busy.  We  have  books  entitled  "  Footfalls  on 
the  Boundaries  of  Other  Worlds,"  "  The  Debatable 
Land  Between  this  World  and  the  Next,"  "  Re- 
searches into  the  Phenomena  of  Spiritualism,"  and 

506 


SPIRITUALISM   AN    IMPOSTURE.  507 

whole  libraries  of  hocus-pocus,  enough  to  deceive 
the  very  elect. 

Modern  Spiritualism  proposes  to  open  the  door 
between  this  world  and  the  next,  and  put  us  into 
communication  with  the  dead.  It  has  never  yet 
offered  one  reasonable  credential.  There  is  nothing 
in  the  intelligence  or  the  character  of  the  founders  of 
Spiritualism  to  commend  it.  All  the  wonderful 
things  performed  by  Spiritualism  have  been  per- 
formed by  sleight-of-hand  and  rank  deception.  Dr. 
Carpenter,  Robert  Houdin,  Mr.  Waite  and  others 
have  exposed  the  fraud  by  dramatizing  in  the  pres- 
ence of  audiences  the  very  things  that  Spiritualism 
proposes  to  do  or  says  it  has  done.  In  the  New 
York  Independent  there  was  an  account  of  a  challenge 
given  by  a  non-Spiritualist  to  a  Spiritualist  to  meet 
him  on  the  platform  of  Tremont  Temple,  Boston. 
The  non-Spiritualist  declared  that  he  would  bv 
sleight-of-hand  perform  all  the  feats  executed  by  the 
Spiritualist.  They  met  in  the  presence  of  an  audience. 
The  Spiritualist  went  through  his  wonderful  per- 
formances, and  the  other  man  by  sleight-of-hand  did 
the  same  things. 

"  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them,"  is  the  test 
that  Christ  gave,  and  by  that  test  I  conclude  that  the 
tree  of  Spiritualism  which  yields  bad  fruit,  and  bad 
fruit  continually,  is  one  of  the  worst  trees  in  all  the 
orchard  of  necromancy.  The  postoffice  which  it  has 
established  between  the  next  world  and  this  is  an* 
other  Star  Route  postoffice,  kept  up  at  vast  expense 
without  ever  having  delivered  one  letter  from  the 
other  world  to  this. 

The  first  leading  remark  I  have  to  make  in  regard 
to  Spiritualism  is  that  it  is  a  very  old  doctrine. 


508  SPIRITUALISM  AN   IMPOSTURE. 

Do  you  want  to  know  the  origin  and  the  history 
of  that  which  has  captured  so  many  in  all  our  towns 
and  cities,  a  doctrine  with  which  some  of  you  are 
tinged?  Spiritualism  in  America  was  born  in  1847. 
in  Hydesville,  Wayne  county,  New  York,  where  one 
night  there  was  a  rapping  at  the  door  of  Michael 
Weekman,  and  a  second  rapping  at  the  door,  and  a 
third  rapping  at  the  door,  and  every  time  the  door 
was  opened  there  was  no  one  there.  Proof  positive 
that  they  were  invisible  knuckles  that  rapped  at  the 
door.  In  that  same  house  there  was  a  man  who  felt 
a  cold  hand  pass  over  his  forehead,  and  there  was  no 
arm  attached  to  ihe  hand.  Proof  positive  it  was 
spiritualistic  influence. 

After  a  while,  Mr.  Fox  with  his  family  moved  into 
that  house,  and  then  they  had  hangings  at  the  door 
every  night.  One  night  Mr.  Fox  cried  out :  "  Are 
you  a  spirit?"  Two  raps — answer  in  the  affirmative. 
"  Are  you  an  injured  spirit?"  Two  raps — answer  in 
the  affirmative.  Then  they  knew  right  away  that  it 
was  the  spirit  of  a  peddler  who  had  been  murdered 
in  that  house  years  before,  and  who  had  been  robbed 
of  his  $500.  Whether  the  spirit  of  the  peddler  came 
back  to  collect  his  $500  or  his  bones  I  do  not  know. 
But  from  that  time  on  there  was  a  constant  excite- 
ment around  the  premises,  and  the  excitement  spread 
all  over  the  land.  All  these  are  matters  of  history. 
People  said:  "  Well,  now,  we  have  a  new  religion." 
Ah  !  it  is  not  a  new  religion. 

In  all  ages  there  have  been  necromancers,  those 
who  consulted  with  the  spirits  of  the  departed — 
charmers  who  threw  people  into  a  mesmeric  state, 
sorcerers  who  by  eating  poisonous  herbs  can  see 
everything,  hear  everything,  and  tell  everything, 


SPIRITUALISM   AN    IMPOSTURE.  509 

astrologers  who  found  out  a  new  dispensation  of  the 
stars,  experts  in  palmistry  who  can  tell  by  the  lines 
in  the  palm  of  your  hand  your  origin,  your  history 
and  your  destiny.  From  the  cavern  on  Mount 
Parnassus  it  is  said  there  came  up  an  atmosphere 
that  intoxicated  the  sheep  and  the  goats  that  came 
near  by,  and  under  its  influence  the  shepherds  were 
lifted  into  exaltation  so  they  could  foretell  future 
events  and  consult  with  familiar  spirits.  Long  before 
the  time  of  Christ  the  Brahmins  had  all  the  table 
rocking  and  the  table  quaking. 

You  want  to  know  what  God  thinks  of  all  these 
things.  He  says  in  one  place,  "  I  will  be  a  swift  wit- 
ness against  the  sorcerers."  He  says  in  another 
place,  "  Thou  shalt  not  suffer  a  witch  to  live."  And 
lest  you  should  make  too  wide  a  margin  between 
Spiritualism  and  witchcraft,  he  groups  them  to- 
gether, and  says :  "  There  shall  not  be  found 
among  you  any  consulter  with  familiar  spirits,  or  a 
wizard,  or  a  necromancer,  for  all  that  do  these  things 
are  an  abomination  unto  the  Lord."  And  then  the 
still  more  remarkable  passage,  which  says :  "  The 
soul  that  turneth  after  such  as  have  familiar  spirits, 
and  after  wizards,  to  go  a  whoring  after  them,  I  will 
even  set  my  face  against  that  soul,  and  will  cut  him 
off  from  among  his  people ;  "  and  a  score  of  passages 
showing  that  God  never  speaks  of  these  evils  in  any 
other  way  than  \\ith  living  thunders  of  indignation. 
After  all  that,  be  a  Spiritualist  if  you  dare ! 

Another  remark  I  have  to  make  in  regard  to  Spirit- 
ualism is,  that  it  takes  advantage  of  people  when 
they  are  weak  and  morbid  with  trouble.  We  lose  a 
friend.  The  house  is  dark,  the  world  is  dark,  the 
future  seems  dark.  If  we  had  in  our  rebellion  and  in 


510  SPIRITUALISM   AN    IMPOSTURE. 

our  weakness  the  power  to  marshal  a  host  and  recap- 
ture our  loved  one  from  the  next  world,  we  would 
marshal  the  host.  Oh,  how  we  long  to  speak  with 
the  dead  ! 

Spiritualism  comes  in  at  that  moment,  when  we 
are  all  worn  out,  perhaps  by  six  weeks'  or  two 
months'  watching,  all  worn  out  body,  mind,  and  soul, 
and  says,  "  Now  I  will  open  the  door,  you  shall  hear 
the  voices  ;  take  your  place  around  the  table  ;  all  be 
quiet  now."  Five  minutes  pass  along ;  no  response 
from  the  next  world.  Ten  minutes,  fifteen  minutes, 
twenty  minutes.  Nervous  system  all  the  time  more 
and  more  agitated.  Thirty  minutes ;  no  response 
from  the  next  world.  Forty  minutes  pass,  and  the 
table  begins  to  shiver.  Then  the  medium  sits  down, 
his  hand  twitching,  and  the  pen  and  the  ink  and  the 
paper  having  been  provided,  he  writes  out  the  mes- 
sage from  the  next  world. 

What  is  remarkable  is  that  these  spirits,  after  being 
in  the  illumination  of  heaven,  some  of  them  for  years, 
forget  how  to  spell  right.  People  who  were  excel- 
lent grammarians  come  back,  and  with  their  first 
sentence  smash  all  the  laws  of  English  grammar !  I 
received  such  a  letter.  I  happened  to  know  the  man 
that  signed  it.  It  was  a  miserably  spelled  letter.  I 
sent  it  back  with  the  remark :  "  You  just  send  word 
to  those  spirits  they  had  better  go  to  school  and 
study  orthography."  It  comes  in  time  of  weakness, 
and  overthrows  the  soul.  Now,  just  think  of  spirits 
enthroned  in  heaven  coming  down  to  crawl  under  a 
table,  and  break  crockery,  and  ring  the  bell  before 
supper  is  ready,  and  rattle  the  shutters  on  a  gusty 
night.  What  consolation  in  such  miserable  stuff  as 
compared  with  the  consolation  of  our  departed 


SPIRITUALISM   AN    IMPOSTURE.  $11 

friends  free  from  toil,  and  sin,  and  pain  are  forever 
happy,  and  that  \ve  will  join  them,  not  in  mysterious 
and  half  utterances,  which  make  the  hair  stand  on 
end,  and  make  cold  chills  creep  up  and  down  the 
back,  but  in  a  reunion  most  blessed,  and  happy,  and 
glorious. 

"  And  none  shall  murmur  or  misdoubt 
When  God's  great  sunrise  finds  us  out!" 

Oh,  I  hate  Spiritualism,  because  it  takes  advantage 
of  people  when  they  are  weak,  and  worn  out,  and 
morbid  under  the  bereavements  and  sorrows  of  this 
life. 

Another  remark  I  have  to  make  in  regard  to  Spir- 
itualism is,  that  it  is  an  affair  of  the  night. 

The  Davenports,  the  Foxes,  the  Fowlers,  and  all 
the  mediums  prefer  the  night,  or,  if  it  is  in  the  day- 
time, a  darkened  room.  Why  ?  Because  deception 
is  more  successful  in  the  night.  Some  of  the  things 
done  in  Spiritualism  are  not  frauds,  but  are  to  be 
ascribed  to  some  occult  law  of  nature  which  will 
after  a  while  be  demonstrated;  but  nine  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  out  of  a  thousand  of  their  feats  are  arrant 
and  unmitigated  humbug. 

I  suppose  almost  every  one  sometimes  has  been 
touched  by  some  hallucination.  Indigestion  from  a 
late  supper  generally  accounts  for  it.  If  you  will 
only  take  in  generous  proportions  at  eleven  o'clock 
at  night,  lobster  salad  and  mince  pie  and  ice-cream 
and  lemonade  and  a  little  cocoanut,  you  will  be  able 
to  see  fifty  materialized  spirits.  All  the  mediums  of 
the  past  did  their  work  in  the  night.  Witch  of  Endor 
held  her  seance  in  the  night.  Deeds  of  darkness. 
Away  with  this  religion  of  spooks! 

Another  remark  I  have  to  make  in  regard  to  Spir- 


512  SPIRITUALISM   AN   IMPOSTURE. 

itualism  is  that  it  ruins  the  physical  health.  Look  in 
upon  an  audience  of  Spiritualists.  Cadaverous,  pale, 
worn  out,  exhausted.  Hands  cold  and  clammy. 
Nothing  prospers  but  long  hair— soft  marshes  yield- 
ing rank  grass.  Something  startling  going  through 
that  room,  clothed  in  white.  Table  fidgety  as 
though  to  get  its  feet  loose  and  dance.  Voices 
sepulchral.  Rappings  mysterious.  I  never  knew  a 
confirmed  Spiritualist  who  had  a  healthy  nervous 
organization.  It  is  the  first  stages  of  epilepsy  or 
catalepsy.  I  have  noticed  that  people  who  hear  a 
great  many  rappings  from  the  next  world  have  not 
much  strength  to  endure  the  hard  raps  of  this. 

What  a  sin  it  is  for  you,  my  brother,  to  be  trifling 
with  your  nervous  system.  Get  your  nervous  system 
out  of  tune  and  the  whole  universe  is  out  of  tune  as 
far  as  you  are  concerned.  Better  tamper  with  the 
chemist's  retort  that  may  smite  you  dead,  or  with  the 
engineer's  steam  boiler  that  may  blow  you  to  atoms, 
than  trifle  with  your  nerves.  You  can  live  without 
eyes,  and  with  one  lung  and  with  no  hands  and  no 
feet.  Be  happy  as  men  have  been  happy  in  such  mis- 
fortune ;  but  alas !  if  your  nervous  system  is  gone. 

Another  remark  I  have  to  make  in  regard  to 
Spiritualism  is,  that  it  is  a  marital  and  social  curse. 
Deeds  of  darkness  and  orgies  of  obscenity  have 
transpired  under  its  wing.  I  cannot  tell  you  the 
story.  I  will  not  pollute  my  tongue  or  your  ears 
with  the  recital.  Enough  to  know  that  the  criminal 
courts  have  often  been  called  to  stop  the  criminality. 
How  many  families  have  been  broken  up  here  in 
Brooklyn  and  throughout  the  United  States!  Wo- 
men by  the  hundreds  have  by  Spiritualism  been 
pushed  off  into  a  life  of  profligacy.  It  employs  all 


SPIRITUALISM   AN    IMPOSTURE.  513 

that  phraseology  about  "spiritual  affinities,"  and 
"  affinital  relation,"  and  "spiritual  matches,"  and  the 
whole  vocabulary  of  free  love.  It  is  at  war  with 
the  marriage  relation.  I  read  you  from  one  of  their 
prominent  papers  where  it  says:  "  Marriage  is  the 
monster  curse  of  civilization."  The  Spiritualist, 
paper  goes  on  to  say  :  "  Marriage  controls  education, 
is  the  fountain  of  selfishness,  the  cause  of  intemper- 
ance and  debauchery,  the  source  and  aggravation  of 
poverty,  the  prolific  mother  of  disease  and  crime. 
The  society  we  want  is  men  and  women  living  in 
freedom,  sustaining  themselves  by  their  own  industry, 
dealing  with  each  other  in  equity,  respecting  each 
other's  sovereignty,  and  governed  by  their  attrac- 
tions." 

If  Spiritualism  had  full  swing  it  would  turn  this 
world  into  a  pandemonium  of  carnality.  It  is  an 
unclean  and  an  adulterous  religion,  and  the  sooner  it 
goes  down  to  the  pit  from  which  it  came  up,  the 
better  for  earth  and  heaven.  For  the  sake  of  man's 
honor  and  woman's  purity,  let  it  perish.  I  wish  I 
could  gather  up  all  the  raps  it  has  ever  heard  from 
spirits  blest  or  damned  on  its  own  head  in  one 
thundering  rap  of  annihilation. 

Another  remark  I  have  to  make  in  regard  to 
Spiritualism  is,  that  it  produces  insanity.  There  is 
not  an  asylum  from  Bangor  to  San  Francisco  where 
there  are  not  the  torn  and  bleeding  victims  of  Spirit- 
ualism. You  go  into  an  asylum  and  say :  "  What  is 
the  matter  with  this  man  ?  "  The  doctors  will  tell 
you  again  and  again,  "  Spiritualism  demented  him." 
"What  is  the  matter  with  this  woman?"  The  doc- 
tors will  tell  you :  "  Spiritualism  demented  her." 
They  have  been  carried  off  into  mental  midnight — 

33 


5 14  SPIRITUALISM    AN    IMPOSTURE. 

senators,  judges  of  courts — and  at  one  time  they 
came  near  capturing  a  President  of  the  United 
States.  At  Flushing,  Long  Island,  there  was  a  happy 
home.  The  father  became  infatuated  with  Spirit- 
ualism, forsook  his  home,  took  the  $15,000,  the  only 
$15,000  he  had,  surrendered  them  to  a  New  York 
medium,  three  times  attempted  to  take  his  own  life, 
and  then  was  sent  to  the  State  lunatic  asylum.  You 
put  your  hand  in  the  hand  of  this  influence  and  it 
will  lead  you  down  to  darkness,  eternal  darkness, 
where  Spiritualism  holds  an  everlasting  seance. 

You  remember  the  steamer  Atlantic  started  from 
Europe  for  America.  After  it  had  been  out  long 
enough  to  get  to  the  middle  of  the  ocean,  the  ma- 
chinery broke,  and  for  days  and  weeks  the  steamer 
Atlantic  tossed  about  in  the  waves.  Well,  there  were 
many  friends  of  passengers  in  these  cities  and  they 
said,  "  That  vessel  has  gone  down  ;  it  is  a  month  since 
she  was  due ;  that  vessel  must  have  sunk."  There 
were  wives  who  went  to  spiritual  mediums  to  learn 
the  fate  of  that  vessel.  The  spirits  were  gathered 
around  the  table  and  they  said  that  vessel  had  gone 
to  the  bottom  with  all  on  board.  Some  of  those 
women  went  to  the  insane  asylum  and  passed  the  rest 
of  their  lives.  But  one  day,  off  quarantine,  a  gun 
was  heard.  Flags  went  up  on  all  the  shipping,  bells 
of  New  York  and  Brooklyn  were  rung,  newsboys  ran 
through  the  streets  shouting  :  "  Extra !  The  Atlan- 
tic safe !  "  The  vessel  came  to  wharf,  and  there  was 
embracing  of  long-absent  ones;  but  some  of  these 
men  went  up  to  the  insane  asylum  to  find  their  wives 
incarcerated  by  this  foul  cheat  of  hell,  Spiritualism. 

What  did  Judge  Edmonds  say  in  Broadway  Taber- 
nacle, New  York,  while  making  argument  in  behalf 


SPIRITUALISM   AN   IMPOSTURE.  515 

of  Spiritualism,  himself  having  been  fully  captured. 
What  did  Judge  Edmonds  say  ?  Readmitted  this: 
"  There  is  a  fascination  about  consultation  with  the 
spirits  of  the  dead  that  has  a  tendency  to  lead  people 
off  from  their  right  judgment,  and  to  instil  into  them 
a  fanaticism  that  is  revolting  to  the  natural  mind." 

Spiritualism  not  only  ruins  its  disciples  but  it  ruins 
its  mediums. 

No  sooner  had  the  Gadarean  swine  on  the  banks 
of  Galilee  become  spiritual  mediums  than  they  went 
down  in  an  avalanche  of  pork  to  the  consternation  of 
all  the  herdsmen.  Spiritualism  bad  for  a  man,  bad 
for  a  woman,  bad  for  a  beast. 

Another  remark  I  have  to  make  in  regard  to  Spir- 
itualism is,  that  it  ruins  the  soul. 

It  first  makes  a  man  quarter  of  an  infidel,  then  it 
makes  him  half  an  infidel,  then  it  makes  him  a  full 
infidel.  The  whole  system  is  built  on  the  insuffi- 
ciency of  the  Bible  as  a  revelation.  If  God  is  ever 
struck  square  in  the  face  it  is  when  men  sit  at  a  table, 
put  their  hands  on  the  table  and  practically  say : 
"  Come,  you  spirits  of  the  departed,  and  make  a  rev- 
elation in  regard  to  the  future  world  which  the  Bible 
has  not  made.  Come  father,  come  mother,  companion 
in  life,  my  children,  come,  tell  me  something  about 
that  future  world  which  the  Bible  is  not  able  to  tell 
me."  Although  the  Bible  says  he  that  adds  a  word  to 
it  shall  be  found  a  liar,  men  are  all  the  time  getting 
these  revelations,  or  trying  to  get  them  from  the 
next  world.  You  will  either,  my  brother,  my  sister, 
you  will  either  have  to  give  up  the  Bible  or  give  up 
Spiritualism.  No  one  ever  for  a  very  great  length 
of  time  kept  both  of  them. 


CHAPTER   LII. 

BOOKS. 

The  printing-press  is  the  mightiest  agency  for^ood 
or  evil.  A  minister  of  the  Gospel  occupies  an  import- 
ant position,  but  not  one  so  responsible  as  that  of  the 
editor  and  publisher.  Take  the  one  fact  that  from 
the  daily  press  of  New  York  there  go  forth  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  copies  a  day,  and  that  three 
of  the  weeklies  have  an  aggregate  circulation  of  one 
million  two-hundred  thousand,  and  then  cipher,  if  you 
can,  how  far  up,  and  how  far  down,  and  how  far  out, 
reach  the  influences  of  the  American  printing-press. 

I  have  an  idea  that  it  is  to  be  the  chief  agency  for 
the  rescue  and  evangelization  of  the  world,  and  that 
the  last  great  battle  will  not  be  fought  with  guns  and 
swords,  but  with  types  and  presses ;  a  gospelized 
printing-press  triumphing  over,  and  trampling  under 
foot,  and  crushing  out  a  pernicious  literature. 

The  greatest  blessing  that  has  come  to  this  world 
since  Jesus  Christ  came,  is  good  journalism,  and 
the  worst  scourge,  unclean  journalism.  You  must 
apply  the  same  law  to  the  book  and  the  newspaper. 
The  newspaper  is  a  book  swifter  and  in  more  portable 
shape.  Under  unclean  literature,  under  pernicious 
books  and  newspapers,  tens  of  thousands  have  gone 
down ;  the  bodies  of  the  victims  in  the  penitentiaries, 
in  the  dens  of  shame,  and  some  of  the  souls  in  the 
asylums  for  the  imbecile  and  the  insane,  more  of  the 

516 


BOOKS 

.After  C.  Kiesel.] 


BOOKS.  519 

souls  already  having  gone  down  in  an  avalanche  of 
horror  and  despair.  The  London  plague  is  nothing 
to  it.  That  counted  its  victims  by  the  thousands; 
this  modern  pest  shovels  its  millions  into  the  charnel- 
house  of  the  morally  dead.  The  longest  train  of  cars 
that  ever  rolled  over  the  Erie  track,  or  the  Hudson, 
is  not  long  enough,  or  large  enough,  to  hold  the 
beastliness  and  the  putrefaction  which  has  been  gath- 
ered up  in  the  bad  books  and  newspapers  of  America 
for  the  last  twenty  years. 

Now,  there  is  no  more  absorbing  question  to-day 
for  every  man  and  every  patriot  than  this  question  : 
Is  there  anything  we  can  do  to  stem  this  awful  tor- 
rent of  pernicious  literature  ?  Are  we  to  make  our 
minds  the  receptacle  for  all  that  bad  people  choose  to 
write?  Are  we  to  stoop  down,  and  drink  out  of  the' 
trough  which  wickedness  has  filled  ?  Are  we  to  mire 
in  iniquity,  or  to  chase  will-o'-the-wisps  across  swamps 
of  death,  when  God  invites  us  into  the  blooming  gar- 
dens of  His  love?  Is  there  anything  you  can  do? 
Yes.  Is  there  anything  that  I  can  do  to  help  stem 
this  mighty  torrent  of  pernicious  literature  ?  Yes. 

The  first  thing  for  us  all  to  do  is  to  keep  ourselves 
and  our  families  aloof  from  iniquitous  books  and 
newspapers.  Standing  as  we  do,  chin  deep  in  ficti- 
tious literature,  the  question  is  every  day  asked:  Is 
it  right  to  read  novels  ?  Well,  I  have  to  say  that 
there  are  good  novels,  honest  novels,  Christian  nov- 
els, useful  novels,  novels  that  make  the  heart  purer 
and  the  life  better.  The  world  can  never  pay  its  debt 
of  obligation  to  Hawthorne,  and  Landor,  and  Hunt, 
and  Mackenzie,  and  scores  of  others  who  in  times  past 
have  written  healthful  novels.  The  follies  of  the 
world  were  never  better  excoriated  than  in  the  books 


520  BOOKS. 

of  Miss  Edgcworth.  The  memories  of  the  past  were 
never  better  embalmed  than  in  the  writings  of 
Walter  Scott.  No  healthier  books  have  been  writ- 
ten than  those  by  Fenimore  Cooper,  his  novels  full 
of  the  breath  of  the  seaweed  and  the  air  of  the 
American  forests.  Kingsley  did  a  grand  work  in  his 
books  in  smiting  morbidity  and  giving  us  the  poetry 
of  strong  muscles  and  good  health  and  fresh  air. 
Thackeray  accomplished  a  good  work  when  he 
caricatured  pretenders  to  gentility  and  high  blood. 
The  writings  of  Charles  Dickens  are  an  everlasting 
protest  against  injustice,  and  a  plea  for  the  poor. 

These  books,  read  in  the  right  time  and  read  in 
the  right  proportion  with  other  books,  are  healthful 
and  beneficial.  But  I  declare  to  }*ou  to-day  that  I 
believe  three-fourths  of  the  novels  of  the  time  are 
pernicious  and  baleful  to  the  last  extent.  The  whole 
land  is  flooded  with  the  iniquity.  Some  of  these  bad 
novels  come  forth  from  respectable  printing  presses. 
Some  of  them  are  actually  commended  by  religious 
journals.  You  find  them  in  the  desk  of  the  school 
miss,  you  find  them  in  the  trunk  of  the  young  man 
on  his  journey,  you  find  them  in  the  steamboat  cabin, 
you  find  them  in  the  hotel  reception  room.  Every- 
where, everywhere,  a  pernicious  literature.  You 
see  a  light  late  at  night  in  your  child's  room,  You 
go  in  and  say:  "What  are  you  doing?"  •'  Read- 
ing." "  What  are  you  reading?"  "  A  book."  You 
take  the  book  and  look  at  it,  and  you  find  it  is  a  per- 
nicious book.  You  say,  "  Where  did  you  get  it  ?" 
"  Borrowed  it."  Thousands  of  people  buy  perni- 
cious literature  and  are  generous  enough  to  let 
others  also  be  blasted. 

Now,  I  gather  to-day  all  the  novels,  good  and  bad ; 


BOOKS.  521 

all  the  histories,  false  and  true  ;  all  the  romances, 
beautiful  and  hideous ;  all  the  epilogues,  commen- 
taries, catalogues ;  family,  city,  state,  national 
libraries,  and  I  heave  them  into  one  great  pyramid, 
and  I  bring  to  bear  upon  them  some  grand  and 
glorious  and  infallible  Christian  principles,  so  that  if 
you  ask  me  to-day,  Is  there  anything  we  can  do  to 
stem  this  tide?  I  say,  Yes,  very  much,  every  way. 

First,  we  will  stand  aloof  from  all  books  that  give 
false  pictures  of  human  life.  Life  is  neither  a  trag- 
edy nor  a  farce.  Men  are  not  all  either  knaves  or 
heroes.  Women  are  neither  angels  nor  furies. 
Judging,  however,  from  much  of  the  literature  of 
this  day,  we  would  come  to  the  idea  that  life  is  a 
fitful,  fantastic,  and  extravagant  thing,  instead  of  a 
practical  and  useful  thing.  After  these  people  have 
been  reading  late  at  night  romances  which  glorify 
iniquity  and  present  knavery  in  most  attractive  form, 
how  poorly  prepared  are  they  for  the  work  of  life. 
That  man  who  is  an  indiscriminate  novel  reader  is 
unfit  for  the  duties  of  the  store,  the  shop,  the  factory. 
He  will  be  looking  for  his  heroine  in  the  tin  shop,  in 
the  grocery  store,  in  the  banking  house,  and  will  not 
find  her. 

Those  women  who  are  indiscriminate  readers  of 
novels  are  unfit  for  the  duties  of  wife,  mother,  sister, 
daughter — the  duties  of  home  life,  the  duties  of  a 
Christian  life.  There  she  sits  at  midnight,  hands 
trembling,  looking  aghast,  bursting  into  tears  at  mid- 
night over  the  woes  of  some  imaginary  unfortunate. 
When  the  morrow  comes  she  will  sit  by  the  hour 
gazing  at  nothing  and  biting  her  nails  into  the  quick. 
The  carpet  that  was  plain  enough  before  will  be 
plainer  now  that  she  has  walked  through  tessellated 


522  HOOKS. 

halls,  and  the  industrious  companion  will  be  more 
unattractive  now  that  she  has  lounged  in  the  king's 
park  with  a  polished  desperado.  Oh,  these  con- 
firmed readers  of  novels!  They  are  unfit  for  the 
duties  of  this  life,  which  is  a  tremendous  discipline, 
and  they  are  unfit  for  the  work  of  a  world  where  all 
we  gain  is  achieved  by  hard,  continuous,  and  exhaust- 
ive work.  Evil  and  good  mixed. 

We  will  also  help  to  stem  this  tide  of  pernicious 
literature  by  standing  aloof,  we  and  our  families, 
from  books  which  have  some  good,  but  a  large 
admixture  of  evil.  You  have  read  books  that  had  in 
them  the  good  and  the  bad.  Which  stuck?  The 
bad !  There  are  minds  like  sieves,  which  let  the 
small  particles  of  gold  fall  through  and  keep  the  large 
cinders,  while  there  are  intellects  like  loadstones 
plunged  into  filings  of  steel  and  brass,  that  will  keep 
the  steel  and  repel  the  brass.  But  it  is  generally  just 
the  opposite.  You  plunge  through  a  hedge  of  burrs 
to  get  one  blackberry,  and  you  will  get  more  burrs 
than  blackberries.  I  do  not  care  how  good  you  are, 
you  cannot  afford  to  read  a  bad  book. 

You  say,  "  The  influence  is  insignificant."  Ah ! 
the  scratch  of  a  pin  may  produce  the  lockjaw.  You 
out  of  curiosity  plunge  into  a  bad  book,  and  you  have 
the  curiosity  of  a  man  who  takes  a  torch  into  a  gun- 
powder mill  to  see  whether  or  not  it  will  blow  up. 

If  you  want  to  help  stem  the  tide  of  pernicious  lit- 
erature, you  and  your  families  must  stand  back  from 
books  which  corrupt  the  imagination.  I  refer  now 
not  to  that  literature  which  the  villain  has  under 
his  coat,  waiting  for  the  school  to  come  out,  then 
looking  up  and  down  the  street  for  the  police, 
and  then  offering  the  book  to  your  boy  on  his  way 


BOOKS.  523 

home.  I  refer  not  to  that,  but  to  polished  literature, 
which  comes  forth  with  a  cute  plot  sounding  the 
tocsin  that  arouses  all  the  bad  passions  of  our  soul. 

Years  ago  there  came  forth  a  French  authoress 
under  the  assumed  name  of  George  Sand.  She 
smoked  cigars,  she  wore  masculine  apparel.  She 
wrote  with  a  style  ardent,  eloquent,  graphic  in  its 
pictures,  horrible  in  its  suggestions,  damnable  in  its 
results,  and  sending  forth  into  the  libraries  and  the 
homes  of  the  world  an  influence  which  has  not  yet 
relaxed ;  and  I  want  to  tell  you  that  all  the  infamous 
stories  we  have  got  from  Paris  in  the  last  five  or  ten 
years  are  only  copies  of  that  woman's  iniquity. 
These  books  are  sold  by  Christian  booksellers.  Under 
the  nostrils  of  your  cities  there  is  to-day  a  fetid,  reek- 
ing, unwashed  literature  enough  to  poison  all  the 
fountains  of  virtue  and  smite  your  sons  and  daughters 
as  with  the  wings  of  a  destroying  angel,  and  it  is 
high  time  that  the  ministers  of  religion  and  all 
reformers  banded  together  and  marshaled  an  army  of 
righteousness  all  armed  to  the  teeth  to  fight  back  this 
moral  calamity. 

What  do  you  make  of  the  fact  that  fifty  per 
cent. — more  than  fifty  per  cent. — of  the  criminals  in 
the  jails  and  penitentiaries  of  this  country  are  under 
twenty-one  years  of  age  ;  many  of  them  under  eigh- 
teen, many  under  sixteen,  many  under  fifteen.  You 
go  along  the  corridors  of  the  prisons,  and  you  will 
find  that  nine  out  of  ten  came  there  from  reading 
bad  books  or  newspapers.  The  men  will  tell  you  so  ; 
the  women  will  tell  you  so.  Is  not  that  a  fact  worthy 
the  consideration  of  those  whose  families  are  dear  to 
them? 

"Oh,"  you  say,  "  I  am  a  business  man,  and  can't  be 


524  BOOKS. 

looking  after  the  literature  of  my  household  ;  I  can't 
be  examining  books  and  newspapers;  they  will  have 
to  look  after  themselves."  Suppose  your  child  was 
threatened  with  typhoid  fever,  would  you  have  time 
to  go  for  a  doctor  ?  would  you  have  time  to  watch 
the  progress  of  the  disease  ?  would  \*ou  have  time  to 
attend  the  funeral?  In  the  name  of  God,  I  warn 
some  of  you  that  your  children  are  threatened  with 
moral  and  spiritual  typhoid,  and  if  the  evil  be  un- 
arrested  there  will  be  the  funeral  of  the  body,  and 
the  funeral  of  the  mind,  and  the  funeral  of  the  soul 
—three  funerals  in  one  day. 

If  you  want  to  help  stem  this  tide,  keep  aloof,  you 
and  your  families,  from  all  books  that  are  apologetic 
for  crime. 

Some  of  the  most  fascinating  book-binding  in  our 
time  is  thrown  around  sin.  Vice  is  horrible  anyhow. 
It  is  born  in  shame,  and  it  dies  howling  in  the  dark- 
ness. It  whips  one  through  this  life  with  a  scourge 
of  scorpions,  and  after  that  God's  thunders  of  wrath 
pursue  it  over  boundless  deserts.  If  you  want  to 
paint  carnality,  do  not  represent  it  as  looking  out 
irom  embroidered  curtains,  or  from  the  window  of  a 
royal  seraglio.  Paint  it  as  writhing  in  the  horrors  of 
a  city  hospital. 

Cursed  are  the  books  which  make  impurity  decent, 
and  crime  honorable,  and  hypocrisy  noble.  •  Ye 
authors  who  write  them,  ye  publishers  who  print  them, 
ye  booksellers  who  distribute  them,  shall  be  cut  to 
pieces,  if  not  by  an  aroused  public  sentiment,  then  by 
Almighty  God,  who  will  sweep  you  to  the  lowest  pit 
of  perdition,  ye  murderers  of  souls.  You  may  escape 
in  this  world  ;  in  the  next  the  heel  of  calamity  will 
grind  you,  and  you  will  be  fastened  to  the  rock,  and 


BOOKS.  525 

vultures  of  despair  will  claw  at  your  soul,  and  those 
whom  you  have  destroyed  will  come  and  torment 
you,  pouring  hotter  coals  into  your  suffering,  eter- 
nally rejoicing  at  the  outcry  of  your  pain  and  the 
howling  of  your  damnation.  ''  God  shall  wound  the 
hairy  scalp  of  him  that  goeth  on  in  his  trespasses." 

There  she  sits  at  midnight,  bending  over  the  evil 
romance.  The  tears  are  started.  The  color  dashes 
to  the  cheek,  and  then  it  fades.  The  hands  tremble 
as  though  a  guardian  angel  were  trying  to  shake  the 
deadly  book  from  her  grasp.  Then  there  is  a  rush  of 
hot  tears.  The  perspiration  on  her  brow  is  the  spray 
dashed  up  from  the  river  of  death.  She  laughs  with 
a  laugh  that  dies  at  its  own  sound.  Soon  in  a  mad- 
house she  will  mistake  the  ringlets  for  crawling  ser- 
pents, and  thrust  her  white  hand  through  the  bars  of 
the  incarceration,  and  then  beat  her  head  and  push  it 
as  though  she  would  push  the  scalp  from  the  skull, 
crying,  "  My  brain,  my  brain !"  Oh,  stand  off  from 
such  infernal  literature  !  Why  go  sounding  among 
the  reefs  and  among  the  warning  buoys  when  there 
is  such  a  vast  ocean  of  good  literature,  good  books 
and  good  newspapers? — an  ocean  on  which  you  may 
voyage,  all  sail  set. 

I  must,  in  this  connection,  call  to  your  mind  the 
iniquitous  pictorials  of  our  time.  For  good  pictures 
I  have  great  admiration.  An  artist,  with  one  flash, 
will  do  that  which  an  author  can  accomplish  in  four 
hundred  pages.  Fine  paintings  are  the  aristocracy 
of  art.  Engravings  are  the  democracy  of  art.  A 
good  picture  on  one  side  of  a  pictorial  will  sometimes 
do  just  as  much  good  as  a  book  of  four  or  five  hun- 
dred pages.  Multiply  these  pictures.  Put  them  in 
your  household.  If  there  are  any  sick,  put  them 


526  BOOKS. 

upon  the  couch.  Put  these  pictorials  on  your  walls. 
Gather  them  in  portfolios  and  albums.  God  speed 
the  good  pictures  on  their  errands  of  knowledge  and 
mercy.  It  is  a  mighty  agency  for  God  and  the  truth, 
a  good  picture. 

But  you  know  our  cities  are  to-day  cursed  with 
evil  pictorials.  These  death-warrants  are  on  every 
street.  A  young  man  purchases  perhaps  one  copy, 
and  he  purchases  with  it  his  eternal  discomfiture. 
That  one  bad  picture  poisons  one  soul,  that  soul 
poisons  fifty  souls,  the  fifty  despoil  a  hundred,  the 
hundred  a  thousand,  the  thousand  a  million,  and  the 
million  other  millions,  until  it  will  take  the  measuring 
line  of  eternity  to  tell  the  height,  and  the  depth,  and 
the  ghastliness  of  the  great  undoing.  A  young  man 
buys  one  copy,  and  he  unrolls  it  amid  roaring  com- 
panions ;  but  long  after  that  paper  is  gone  the  evil 
will  be  seen  in  the  blasted  imaginations  of  those  who 
looked  at  it.  Every  night  the  Queen  of  Death  holds 
a  banquet,  and  these  evil  pictorials  are  the  printed 
invitations  to  the  guests. 

Alas !  that  the  fair  brow  of  American  art  should 
be  blotched  with  that  plague  spot.  Oh,  young  man, 
buy  none  of  that  moral  strychnine,  do  not  pick  up  a 
nest  of  coiled  adders  for  your  pocket.  Your  heart 
will  be  more  pure  than  your  eye.  A  man  is  never 
better  than  the  picture  he 'loves  to  look  at.  Show 
me  what  style  of  pictures  a  man  buys  and  I  will  tell 
you  his  character.  Out  of  a  thousand  times  I  will 
not  make  one  failure  in  judgment.  When  Satan  fails 
to  get  a  man  to  read  a  bad  book,  he  sometimes  cap- 
tures him  by  getting  him  to  look  at  a  bad  picture. 
When  Satan  goes  a-fishing,  he  does  not  care  whether 
it  is  a  long  line  or  a  short  line,  if  he  only  hauls  in  his 
victim. 


BOOKS.  527 

Oh,  if  in  answer  to  this  stupendous  question  of  the 
day,  a  question  which  so  many  answer  in  the  negative 
because  they  are  in  despairful  mood,  "  Is  there  any- 
thing to  be  done  to  stem  this  awful  tide  of  pernicious 
literature  ?  "  if  I  have  shown  you  that  there  is  some- 
thing for  us  to  do,  I  shall  have  done  a  work  that  I 
will  not  be  ashamed  of  in  that  day  which  shall  try 
every  man's  work,  of  what  sort  it  is.  Oh,  remember 
that  one  column  of  good  reading  may  save  a  soul, 
that  one  column  of  bad  reading  may  destroy  a  soul. 

Benjamin  Franklin  said  that  the  reading  of  Cotton 
Mather's  "  Essay  to  Do  Good "  moulded  his  entire 
life.  The  assassin  of  Lord  Russell  said  he  entered 
crime  through  an  evil  romance.  John  Angell  James, 
than  whom  England  never  produced  a  better  man, 
or  the  Church  of  God  honors  a  more  consistent 
Christian,  declared  in  his  old  days  that  he  had  never 
got  over  once  having  for  fifteen  minutes  read  a  bad 
book.  Ah !  the  power  of  a  bad  book.  And  then  the 
power  of  a  good  book. 

Years  ago  a  clergyman  passing  along  through  the 
West,  stopped  at  a  hotel,  and  saw  a  woman  copying 
from  a  book.  He  found  the  book  was  Doddridge's 
"  Rise  and  Progress."  This  woman  had  been  pleased 
with  the  book  which  she  had  borrowed,  and  was 
copying  a  passage  that  impressed  her  very  much. 
The  clergyman  happened  to  have  a  copy  of  Dod- 
dridge's "  Rise  and  Progress"  in  his  valise,  and  gave 
it  to  her.  Thirty  years  passed  along,  and  that  clergy- 
man came  to  the  same  hotel,  and  was  inquiring  about 
the  family  that  had  lived  there  thirty  years  before, 
and  was  pointed  to  a  house  near  by.  He  went  there, 
and  said  to  the  woman,  "  Do  you  remember  seeing 
me  before?"  She  said,  "  I  don't  remember  ever  to 


$28  BOOKS. 

have  seen  you  before."  "  Don't  you  remember  thirty 
years  ago  a  man  giving  you  a  copy  of  Doddridge's 
"Rise  and  Progress'?"  "  Oh,  yes,  I  remember  that; 
that  saved  my  soul.  That  book  I  loaned  to  my 
neighbors,  and  they  read  it,  and  they  all  came  into 
the  kingdom,  and  we  had  a  great  revival.  Do  you 
see  the  spire  of  a  church  out  yonder?  That  church 
was  built  as  a  consequence  of  that  book."  Oh,  the 
power  of  a  good  book!  Oh,  the  power  of  a  bad 
book  ! 

I  had  one  book  in  my  library  of  which  I  have  never 
thought  with  any  comfort.  It  was  an  infidel  book, 
which  I  bought  for  the  purpose  of  finding  out  the 
arguments  against  Christianity.  A  gentleman  in  my 
library  one  day  said,  "Can  I  borrow  that  book  ?"  I  said, 
"  Certainly."  That  book  came  back  with  some  pass- 
ages marked  as  having  especially  impressed  him,  and 
when  I  heard  that  he  had  gone  down  in  a  shipwreck 
off  Cape  Hatteras,  I  asked  myself  the  question,  "  I 
wonder  if  anything  he  saw  in  that  book  which  he  bor- 
rowed 'from  me,  could  have  affected  his  eternal 
destiny  ?" 

Oh,  go  home  to-day  and  examine  your  libraries, 
and  after  you  have  got  through  your  libraries, 
examine  the  stand  where  the  pictorials  and  news- 
papers are,  and  if  you  find  anything  there  that  can 
not  stand  the  test  of  the  judgment  day,  do  not  give  it 
to  others — that  would  despoil  them  ;  do  not  sell  it— 
that  would  be  getting  the  price  of  blood  ;  but  kindle 
a  fire  on  your  kitchen  hearth  or  in  your  back-yard, 
and  put  the  poison  in  and  keep  stirring  the  blaze  until 
everything  has  gone  to  ashes,  from  preface  to  ap- 
pendix. 

And  crowd  your  minds  with  good  books,  and  there 


BOOKS.  529 

will  be  no  room  for  the  bad.  When  Thomas  Chal- 
mers was  riding  beside  a  stage-driver  and  the  horses 
were  going  beautifully,  the  stage-driver  drew  his 
long  lash  and  struck  the  ear  of  the  leader.  It  seemed 
to  Thomas  Chalmers  a  great  cruelty,  and  he  said, 
"  Why  did  you  strike  that  horse ;  he  is  going  splen- 
didly?" "Ah!"  said  the  stage-driver,  "do  you  see 
that  frightful  object  along  the  road  ?  I  never  in  the 
world  would  have  got  that  horse  along  there  if  I 
hadn't  given  him  something  else  to  think  of ! " 
Thomas  Chalmers  went  home  and  wrote  his  immortal 
sermon,  "  The  Expulsive  Power  of  a  New  Affection." 

And  while  you  have  looked  after  yourselves  and 
looked  after  your  families,  I  want  you  to  join  this 
great  army  enlisted  against  pernicious  literature. 
We  are  going  to  triumph.  I  feel  to  the  tips  of  my 
fingers  and  in  the  depths  of  my  soul  the  assurance  that 
righteousness  is  going  to  triumph  over  all  iniquity. 
If  God  be  with  us,  who,  who  can  be  against  us? 
Lady  Hester  Stanhope  was  the  daughter  of  the  third 
Earl  Stanhope,  and  when  her  relatives  were  all  dead 
she  went  to  the  far  East  and  took  possession  of  a  de- 
serted convent.  Then  she  threw  up  fortresses  amid 
the  mountains  of  Lebanon,  and  invited  to  her  castle 
all  the  poor  and  the  wretched  and  the  forsaken  and 
the  forgotten.  Her  house,  her  castle,  was  a  rest  for 
all  the  weary. 

She  was  a  devoted  Christian  woman,  and  expected 
that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  would  come  again  in  per- 
son and  reign  in  this  world,  and  she  was  so  entranced 
•  with  the  thought  that  Christ  would  come  again  that 
it  was  too  much  for  her  brain.  She  had  in  her  magnifi- 
cent stables  two  horses,  which  she  kept  all  the  time 
groomed  and  bridled  and  saddled  and  caparisoned,  so 

34 


530  BOOKS. 

that  when  the  Lord  should  come  He  might  take  one 
horse,  and  she  the  other,  and  they  could  speed  away 
to  Jerusalem,  the  city  of  the  Great  King-.  Of  course 
it  was  a  fanaticism  and  a  delusion,  but  there  was  great 
beauty  even  in  the  dream. 

Oh,  my  friends,  we  need  no  earthly  palfreys 
groomed  and  bridled  and  saddled  and  caparisoned 
for  our  Lord,  when  He  comes  to  put  down  iniquity. 
The  horse  is  already  in  the  Heavenly  equerry,  and 
the  imperial  rider  is  about  to  mount.  "And  I  saw, 
and  behold  a  white  horse :  and  He  thai  sat  on  him 
had  a  bow,  and  a  crown  was  given  unto  Him:  and 
He  went  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer."  Horse- 
men of  Heaven,  mount!  Cavalrymen  of  God,  ride 
on  !  Charge,  charge  !  until  they  shall  be  hurled  back, 
the  black  horse  of  famine,  the  red  horse  of  carnage, 
the  pale  horse  of  death.  Jesus,  forever ! 


CHAPTER  LIII. 

ARE   THEATRES   IMPROVING? 

As  near  as  I  can  tell,  it  is  about  half-past  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  Signs  of  dawn  all  around 
the  sky.  Caverns  full  of  darkness,  but  the  mountains 
are  being  transfigured.  The  sun  is  coming  up, 
although  coming  very  slowly.  The  world  progresses. 

Since  the  armies  of  civilization  and  Christianity 
started  on  their  march,  they  have  not  fallen  back  an 
inch.  There  have  been  regiments  cowardly,  which 
have  retreated  and  surrendered  to  the  enemy,  just  as 
in  all  armies  there  are  those  unworthy  the  standard 
they  carry ;  but  the  great  host  of  God  has  been 
answering  to  the  command  given  at  the  start  of, 
"  Forward,  march  !  " 

Have  the  entertainments  and  the  recreations  of  the 
world  kept  abreast  in  this  grand  march  of  the  ages  ? 
Are  the  novels  of  our  day  superior  to  those  that  are 
past?  Is  the  dance  of  this  decade  an  improvement 
upon  the  dance  of  other  decades  ?  Are  the  opera 
houses  rendering  grander  music  than  that  which  they 
rendered  in  other  times?  Are  parlor  games  more 
healthful  than  they  used  to  be  ?  Are  the  theatres 
advancing  in  moral  tone  ?  Mark  you,  I  am  not  to 
discuss  whether  the  theatre  is  right  or  wrong.  I  am 
not  to  make  wholesale  attack  upon  tragedians  and 
comedians.  There  are  a  hundred  questions  in  regard 
to  the  theatre  that  might  be  asked  which  I  shall  not 

531 


532  ARE  THEATRES    IMPROVING? 

this  morning  answer,  the  most  of  them  having  been 
answered  at  some  other  time  in  this  pulpit.  You  say 
that  Henry  Irving,  and  Edwin  Booth,  and  John  Mc- 
Cullough,  and  Joseph  Jefferson  are  great  actors,  and 
are  honorable  men.  I  believe  it.  The  question  that 
I  am  to  discuss  to-day  is:  Are  the  theatres  advancing 
in  high  moral  tone?  and  I  shall  in  no  wise  be  diverted 
from  that  discussion. 

There  are  three  or  four  reasons  for  answering  this 
question  in  the  negative,  and  the  first  is  the  combined 
and  universal  testimony  of  all  the  secular  newspapers 
of  the  land  that  are  worth  anything.  There  is  not  a 
secular  newspaper  of  any  power  in  the  United  States 
which  has  not  within  the  past  few  years,  both  in  edi- 
torial and  reportorial  column,  reprehended  the  styles 
of  play  most  frequent.  It  is  contrary  to  the  financial 
interests  of  the  secular  newspaper  severely  to  criticise 
the  playhouse,  because  from  it  comes  the  largest  ad- 
vertising patronage,  larger  than  from  any  other 
source,  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars  a 
year.  When,  therefore,  the  secular  newspapers  of 
the  land,  contrary  to  their  financial  interests,  severely 
criticise  the  playhouse  for  imbecile  and  impure  spec- 
tacular, their  testimony  is  to  me  contlusive.  On  the 
negative  side  of  this  question  I  roll  up  all  the  respect, 
able  printing-presses  of  America. 

Another  reason  for  answering  this  question  in  the 
negative  is  the  depraved  advertisements  on  the  bulle- 
tin boards  and  on  the  board  fences  and  in  the  show 
windows,  from  ocean  to  ocean.  I  take  it  for  granted 
that  those  advertisements  are  honest,  and  that  night 
by  night  are  depicted  the  scenes  there  advertised. 
Are  those  the  scenes  to  which  parents  take  their  sons 
and  daughters,  and  young  men  their  affianced? 


ARE   THEATRES   IMPROVING?  533 

Would  you  allow  in  your  parlor  such  brazen  inde- 
cency enacted  as  is  dramatized  every  night  in  some 
of  the  theaters  of  America,  unless  their  advertise- 
ments be  a  libel?  If  the  pictures  be  genuine,  the 
scenes  are  damnable. 

That  which  is  wrong  in  a  parlor  is  wrong  on  a 
stage.  It  ought  to  require  just  as  much  complete- 
ness of  apparel  to  be  honorable  in  one  place  as  to  be 
honorable  in  another.  If  you,  fathers  and  mothers, 
take  your  sons  and  daughters  to  see  such  Sodomite 
lack  of  robe,  and  then,  in  after  time,  the  plowshare 
of  libertinism  and  profligacy  should  go  through  your 
own  household,  you  will  get  what  you  deserve.  It 
seems  as  if,  having  obtained  a  surplus  of  sanctity 
during  the  Lenten  services,  right  after  Easter,  all 
through  the  United  States,  the  streets  become  a  pic- 
ture gallery  which  rival  the  museums  of  Pompeii, 
which  are  kept  under  lock  and  key.  Where  are  the 
mayors  of  the  cities,  and  the  judges  of  the  courts, 
and  the  police,  that  they  allow  such  things  ?  When 
our  cities  are  blotched  with  these  depraved  adver- 
tisements is  it  not  some  reason  why  we  should  think 
that  the  theaters  of  this  country  are  not  very  rapidly 
advancing  toward  millennial  excellence? 

Another  reason  for  answering  this  question  in  the 
negative  is  the  large  importation  of  bad  morals  from 
foreign  countries  to  the  American  stage.  .France 
sent  one  of  her  queens  of  the  stage  to  this  country, 
her  infamy,  instead  of  a  shame,  a  boast.  Never  a 
more  popular  actress  on  the  American  stage,  and 
never  one  more  dissolute.  Thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands  of  professed  Christian  men  and  women 
went  and  burned  incense  before  that  goddess  of 
debauchery.  England,  too,  has  sent  her  delectable 


534  ARE   THEATRES   IMPROVING? 

specimens  of  ineffable  sweetness  commended  by 
foreign  princes,  not  as  good  as  their  mother.  When 
I  take  into  consideration  this  large  importation  of 
bad  morals  from  foreign  parts,  I  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  American  theatres  are  not,  as  a  general 
thing,  advancing  in  moral  tone. 

Another  reason  for  answering  this  question  in  the 
negative  is  the  fact  that  the  vast  majority  of  the 
plays  of  the  day  are  degenerate.  I  will  not  name 
many  of  them,  because  I  might  advertise  that  which 
I  condemn,  and  the  mere  mention  of  them  would  be 
a  perfidy.  If  I  mention  any  they  must  be  those  that 
are  a  little  past,  but  which  may  come  back  again 
when  the  American  taste  wants  a  change  of  carrion. 
Take  the  plays  of  the  last  fifteen  years,  and  I  will 
admit  that  one-tenth  of  them  are  unobjectionable, 
but  the  nine-tenths  of  them  are  unfit  to  be  looked  at 
by  the  families  of  America.  Subtract  from  them  the 
libertinism  and  the  domestic  intrigue  and  the  inu- 
endo  and  the  vulgarity  and  the  marital  scandalism, 
and  you  would  leave  those  plays  powerless  in  the 
dramatic  market. 

Put  side  by  side  the  plays  of  the  time  of  Macready 
and  the  elder  Booth  and  the  modern  plays,  and  you 
will  find  there  has  been  an  awful  decadence.  I  have 
not  seen  those  plays,  but  I  have  taken  the  testimony 
of  authentic  witnesses,  and  I  have  seen  the  skillful 
analyses  by  critics — a  score  of  critics — among  them 
such  men  as  Dr.  Buckley,  of  New  York,  men  who 
have  read  scores  of  the  plays  and  who  can  report  in 
regard  to  them — I  take  the  testimony  of  those  who 
witnessed  the  plays,  and  then  I  take  the  testimony  of 
the  critics  who  like  the  theater  and  who  do  not  like 
it, — I  put  them  all  together,  and  I  find  a  moral 
decadence. 


ARE   THEATRES   IMPROVING?  535 

If  you  who  took  your  families  to  see  East  Lynne 
will  now  in  your  cooler  moments  read  the  manuscript 
of  that  play — read  the  printed  play,  and  go  through 
the  fetid  and  malodorous  chapters  in  which  dishonest 
womanhood  is  chased  from  iniquity  to  iniquity,  you 
will  be  able  to  judge  for  yourself  whether  that  is  an 
improved  drama.  You  might  as  well  go  into  the 
grogshop  of  the  village  hotel  and  sit  down  among 
the  bevy  of  village  loafers  expecting  to  get  any  moral 
elevation  as  to  get  any  moral  elevation  from  a  play 
like  the  "  Ticket  of  Leave  Man,"  full  of  villainous 
pictures  and  low  slang.  The  play  entitled  "  A  New 
Way  to  Pay  Old  Debts "  is  a  eulogy,  a  practical 
eulogy  on  deception  practised  on  the  bad,  and  men 
and  women  never  come  from  seeing  that  play  as 
pure  as  when  they  went  in.  "  She  Stoops  to  Con- 
quer" is  as  full  of  moral  miasma  as  the  Roman 
Campagna  is  full  of  typhus  fever  on  a  summer  night. 
You  may  write  Oliver  Goldsmith  above  it  and 
beneath  it  and  at  the  close  of  each  act,  but  you  can 
not  cover  up  the  profane  and  the  salacious.  The 
"  School  for  Scandal  "  is  rotten  clear  through  with 
lasciviousness,  and  if  a  man  should  come  into  your 
house  and  take  that  play  from  under  his  arm  and  read 
it  to  your  family,  all  the  bones  that  were  left  in  his 
body  unbroken  would  not  be  worth  mentioning. 

But  who  could  mention  all  the  Don  Csesars,  and 
the  barmaids,  and  the  Peg  Woffingtons,  and  the 
Courtleighs,  and  the  Lady  Gay  Spankers,  and  the 
poltroons,  and  the  scapegraces,  and  the  people  minus 
all  excellency  plus  all  abomination,  who  gather  men, 
women,  boys,  and  girls  by  tens  of  thousands  every 
night  in  the  lazaretto  of  the  average  American 
theater.  It  is  estimated  that  there  are  one  thousand 


536  ARE   THEATRES   IMPROVING? 

boys  in  Brooklyn  every  night  breathing  that  pesti- 
lence. Hear  it,  ye  whose  sons  stay  out  until  1 1 
o'clock  at  night,  and  you  do  not  know  where  they 
are!  Hear  it,  ye  philanthropists  who  want  this 
generation  better  than  the  generations  that  have 
gone  by ! 

Once  in  a  while  a  great  tragedian  will  render 
"King  Lear,"  or  "Merchant  of  Venice,"  or  "Hamlet," 
before  entranced  audiences,  but  those  plays  as  com- 
pared with  the  imbecile  and  depraved  plays  on  the 
American  stage  to-day,  are  as  the  few  drops  of  pure 
blood  to  the  bad  blood  in  a  man  who  has  passed  out 
from  yellow  fever  into  Asiatic  cholera,  and  is  now 
winding  up  with  first-class  small-pox.  Now,  I  say 
the  majority  of  the  plays  of  this  country  being  bad 
in  their  influence,  I  have  a  right  to  conclude  that  the 
theaters  of  America,  take  them  as  an  average,  are 
not  coming  to  any  very  large  moral  improvement. 

Now,  I  demand  that  as  men  and  women  who  love 
the  best  interests  of  society,  that  we  band  together 
to  snatch  the  drama  from  its  debased  surroundings. 
1  demand  that  as  philanthropists  and  Christians,  we 
rescue  the  drama. 

The  drama  is  not  the  theater.  The  theater  is  a 
human  institution.  The  drama  is  a  literary  expres- 
sion of  something  which  God  implanted  in  nearly 
all  of  our  souls.  People  talk  as  though  it  were  some- 
thing built  up  entirely  outside  of  us  by  the  Con- 
greves  and  the  Sheridans  and  the  Shakespeares  of 
literature.  Oh,  no.  It  is  an  echo  of  something 
divinely  put  within  us.  You  see  it  in  your  little 
child  three  or  four  years  of  age,  with  the  dolls  and 
the  cradles  and  the  carts.  You  see  it  ten  years  after 
in  the  parlor  charades.  You  see  it  after  in  the  im- 


ARE   THEATRES   IMPROVING?  537 

personations  at  the  Academy  of  Music.  You  see  it 
on  Thanksgiving  Day,  when  we  decorate  the  house 
of  God  with  the  fruits  and  harvests  of  the  earth,  that 
spectacular  arousing  our  gratitude.  We  see  it  on 
Easter  morn,  when  we  spell  out  on  the  walls  of 
the  house  of  God  in  flowers  the  words :  "  He  is 
Risen,"  that  spectacular  arousing  our  emotion.  Every 
parent  likes  it,  and  demonstrates  it  when  he  goes  to 
see  the  school  exhibition  with  its  dialogues  and  its 
droll  costumes.  It  is  evidenced  in  the  torchlight 
procession  amid  great  political  excitement,  that  torch- 
light procession  only  a  dramatization  of  the  political 
principles  proclaimed. 

Dithyrambic  drama,  romantic  drama,  sentimental 
drama,  all  an  echo  of  the  human  soul.  Farquhar  and 
Congreve  put  in  English  literature  only  that  which 
was  in  the  English  heart.  Thespis  and  Eschylus 
dramatized  only  that  which  was  in  the  Greek  heart ; 
Seneca  and  Plautus  dramatized  only  that  which  was 
in  the  Roman  heart ;  Racine  and  Alfieri  dramatized 
only  that  which  was  in  the  French  and  the  Italian 
heart ;  Shakespeare  dramatized  only  that  which  was 
in  the  world's  heart.  But  this  divine  principle  is  not 
to  be  despoiled  and  dragged  into  the  service  of  sin. 
It  is  our  business  to  rescue  it,  to  lift  it  up,  to  bring  it 
back,  to  exalt  it.  Will  you  suppress  it?  You  might  as 
well  try  to  suppress  its  Creator.  Just  as  we  cultivate 
the  beautiful  and  the  sublime  in  taste  by  bird-haunted 
glen  and  roystering  stream  and  cascade  let  down 
over  moss-covered  rocks,  and  the  day  setting  up  its 
banners  of  victory  in'  the  east,  and  passing  out  the 
gates  of  the  west,  setting  everything  on  fire,  the 
Austerlitz  aad  the  Waterloo  of  a  July  thunder-storm 
blazing  its  batteries  into  a  sultry  afternoon,  and  the 


538  ARE   THEATRES    IMPROVING? 

round  tear  of  the  world  wet  on  the  cheek  of  the 
night — as  by  these  things  we  try  to  culture  a  taste 
for  the  sublime  and  the  beautiful,  so  we  are  to 
culture  this  dramatic  taste  by  staccato  passages  in 
literature,  by  antithesis  and  synthesis,  by  all  tragic 
passages  in  human  life. 

We  are  to  take  this  dramatic  element  and  we  are 
to  harness  it  for  God.  Because  it  has  been  taken  into 
the  service  of  sin  is  nothing  against  it.  You  might 
as  well  denounce  music  because  in  Corinth  and  Her- 
culaneum  it  was  used  to  demonstrate  and  set  forth 
depravity  and  turpitude.  Shall  we  not  enthrone 
music  on  the  organ  because  music  again  and  again 
has  been  trampled  under  the  foot  of  impious  dance? 
Because  there  are  pollutions  in  art  shall  we  turn 
back  upon  Church's  "  Niagara,"  or  Powers'  "  Greek 
Slave,"  or  Rubens'  "  Descent  from  the  Cross,"  or 
Michael  Angelo's  "  Last  Judgment  "?  Because  these 
things  have  been  dragged  into  the  service  of  sin  is 
the  very  reason  that  you  and  I  should  take  the  drama 
out  and  harness  it  for  God  and  the  truth.  You  Sab- 
bath-school teachers  want  more  of  the  dramatic  ele- 
ment in  your  work,  in  your  recital  of  the  Bible  scene, 
in  the  anecdote  that  you  tell,  in  the  descriptive 
gesture,  in  the  impersonation  of  the  character  you 
present — you  want  more  of  the  dramatic  element.  I 
can  tell  in  looking  over  an  audience  of  Sabbath-school 
children  in  which  teacher  the  dramatic  element  is 
dominant,  and  in  which  the  didactic  element  is 
dominant. 

Oh,  there  are  hundreds  of  people  who  are  trying 
to  do  good.  Have  less  of  the  didactic  element,  and 
have  more  of  the  dramatic.  The  tendency  in  our 
time  is  to  drone  religion,  to  moan  religion,  to  croak 


ARE   THEATRES   IMPROVING?  539 

religion,  to  sepulcherize  religion,  when  it  ought  to  be 
put  in  animated  and  spectacular  manner. 

I  say  to  all  those  young  men  who  are  preparing  for 
the  Gospel  ministry,  go  to  your  libraries,  and  you 
will  find  that  those  who  bring  most  souls  to  God, 
bring  most  into  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  are  dramatic.  John  Knox,  dramatic  ;  Thomas 
Chalmers,  dramatic:  Robert  M'Cheyne,  dramatic; 
Rowland  Hill,  dramatic ;  Robert  Hall,  dramatic ; 
Robert  South,  dramatic  ;  Fenelon,  dramatic  ;  George 
Whitefield,  dramatic;  Dr.  John  Mason,  dramatic; 
Bourdaloue,  dramatic ;  Dr.  Knott,  dramatic ;  George 
W.  Bethune,  dramatic.  And  you  have  a  right  to 
cultivate  that  element  in  your  nature.  Oh,  young 
men  preparing  for  Christian  work,  and  though  you 
may  meet  with  mighty  rebuff  and  caricature  if  you 
attempt  it,  and  though  you  may  be  arraigned  by 
church  courts  who  will  try  to  put  you  down,  the 
Lord  will  start  you,  and  He  will  keep  you  all  through, 
and  great  will  be  the  reward  for  the  assiduous  and 
the  plucky. 

Oh,  my  friends,  we  want  in  all  our  work  to  freshen 
up.  We  want  to  freshen  up,  you  in  your  sphere  and 
I  in  mine.  Great  discussions  in  religious  newspapers 
about  why  people  do  not  come  to  church. 

I  will  tell  you.  You  cannot  take  the  old  hackneyed 
phrases  that  have  come  snoring  down  through  the 
centuries  and  arrest  the  attention  of  the  masses. 
People  in  religious  work  do  not  want  the  sham  flow- 
ers bought  in  a  millinery  shop,  but  the  japonicas  wet 
with  the  morning  dew.  They  do  not  want  the  bones 
of  the  extinct  megatherium  of  the  past,  but  the  liv- 
ing reindeer  caught  last  August  at  the  edge  of 
Schroon  Lake.  We  need,  all  of  us,  to  drive  out  of 


54O  ARE   THEATRES   IMPROVING? 

our  religious  work  the  drowsy  and  the  tedious  and 
the  didatic,  and  bring  in  the  brightness  and  the  vivac- 
ity and  the  holy  sarcasm  and  the  sanctified  wit  and 
the  epigrammatic  power  and  the  blood-red  earnest- 
ness, and  we  will  get  it  through  the  sanctified  drama. 
But  let  me  say  to  hundreds  of  young  men,  do  not 
let  your  fondness  for  the  dramatic  lead  you  into  sin. 
While  God  has  given  you  this  faculty,  cultivate  it, 
and  cultivate  it  in  the  right  direction.  Admire  it 
when  it  is  used  for  God.  Abhor  it  when  it  is  used 
for  sin.  We  do  not  try  to  suppress  it  in  you.  Do 
not  misrepresent  us.  We  would  have  it  directed  ; 
we  would  have  it  educated  ;  we  would  have  it  har- 
nessed for  multiplicand  usefulness.  In  nowise  sup- 
press it.  Gather  all  your  faculties,  and  this  among 
the  others,  and  consecrate  them  to  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ. 


CHAPTER  LIV. 

ROMANCE    OF    CRIME. 

In  our  time,  you  know  as  well  as  I,  that  there  is  a 
disposition  to  put  a  halo  around  iniquity  if  it  is  com- 
mitted in  conspicuous  place,  and  if  it  is  wide  resound- 
ing and  of  large  proportions.  In  this  land  to-day 
there  are  hundreds  of  men  hiding  behind  the  com- 
munion tables  and  in  churches  of  Jesus  Christ,  who 
have  no  business  to  be  there  as  professors  of  religion. 
They  expect  to  be  all  right  with  God,  although  they 
are  all  wrong  with  man.  And  while  I  want  you  to 
understand  that  by  the  deeds  of  the  law  no  flesh  liv- 
ing can  be  justified,  and  a  mere  honest  life  can  not 
enter  us  into  Heaven,  I  want  you  as  plainly  to  under- 
stand that  unless  the  life  is  right  the  heart  is  not 
right.  Grace  in  the  heart,  and  grace  in  the  life ;  so 
we  must  preach  sometimes  the  faith  of  the  Gospel, 
and  sometimes  the  morality  of  the  Gospel. 

It  seems  to  me  there  has  not  been  a  time  in  the  last 
fifty  years  when  this  latter  truth  needed  more  thor- 
oughly to  be  presented  in  the  American  churches.  It 
needs  to  be  presented  to-day. 

A  missionary  in  the  islands  of  the  Pacific  preached 
one  Sabbath  on  honesty  and  dishonesty,  and  on  MonI 
day  he  found  his  yard  full  of  all  styles  of  goods  which 
the  natives  had  brought.  He  could  not  understand 
it  until  a  native  told  him  :  "Our  gods  permit  us  to 
purloin  goods,  but  the  God  you  told  us  about  yester- 

541 


542  ROMANCE    OF    CRIME. 

day,  the  God  of  Heaven  and  earth,  it  seems,  is  against 
these  practices,  and  so  we  brought  all  the  goods  that 
do  not  belong  to  us,  and  they  are  in  the  yard,  and  we 
want  you  to  help  us  to  distribute  them  among  their 
rightful  owners."  And  if  in  all  the  pulpits  of  the 
United  States  to-day  rousing  sermons  could  be 
preached  on  honesty  and  the  evils  of  dishonesty,  and 
the  sermons  were  blessed  of  God,  and  arrangement 
should  Be  made  by  which  all  the  goods  which  have 
been  improperly  taken  from  one  man  and  appropri- 
ated by  another  man  should  be  put  in  the  City  Halls 
of  the  country,  there  is  not  a  City  Hall  in  the  United 
States  that  would  not  be. crowded  from  cellar  to 
cupola.  Faith  of  the  Gospel — that  we  must  preach 
and  we  do  preach.  Morality  of  the  Gospel  we  must 
just  as  certainly  proclaim. 

Now  look  abroad  and  see  the  fascinations  that  are 
thrown  around  different  styles  of  crime.  The  ques- 
tion that  every  man  and  woman  has  asked  has  been, 
Should  crime  be  excused  because  it  is  on  a  large 
scale?  Is  iniquity  guilty  and  to  be  pursued  of  the 
law  in  proportion  as  it  is  on  a  small  scale  ?  Shall  we 
have  New  York  Tombs  for  the  man  who  steals  an 
overcoat  from  a  hat-rack,  and  all  Canada  for  a  man 
to  range  in  if  he  have  robbed  the  public  of  three 
millions? 

Look  upon  all  the  fascinations  thrown  around  fraud 
in  this  country.  You  know  that  for  years  men  have 
been  made  heroes  of  and  pictorialized  and  in  various 
styles  presented  to  the  public,  as  though  sometimes 
they  were  worthy  of  admiration  if  they  have  scattered 
the  funds  of  banks,  or  swallowed  great  estates  that 
did  not  belong  to  them.  Our  young  men  have  been 
dazed  with  this  quick  accumulation.  They  have 


ROMANCE   OF   CRIME.  543 

said,  "  That's  the  way  to  do  it.  What's  the  use  of  our 
plodding  on  with  small  wages  or  insignificant  salary, 
when  we  may  go  into  business  life,  and  with  some 
stratagem  achieve  such  a  fortune  as  that  man  has 
achieved  ?  "  A  different  measure  has  been  applied  to 
the  crime  of  Wall  Street  from  that  which  has  been 
applied  to  the  spoils  which  the  man  carries  up  Rat 
Alley. 

So  a  peddler  came  down  from  Vermont  some 
years  ago,  took  hold  of  the  money-market  of  New 
York,  flaunted  his  abominations  in  the  sight  of  all  the 
people,  defied  public  morals  every  day  of  his  life. 
Young  men  looked  up  and  said,  "  He  was  a  peddler 
in  one  decade,  and  in  the  next  decade  he  is  one  of  the 
monarchs  of  the  stock  market.  That's  the  way  to 
doit." 

There  has  been  an  irresistible  impression  going 
abroad  among  young  men  that  the  poorest  way  to 
get  money  is  to  earn  it.  The  young  man  of  flaunting 
cravat  says  to  the  young  man  of  humble  apparel, 
"What,  you  only  get  eighteen  hundred  dollars  a  year? 
Why,  that  wouldn't  keep  me  in  pin-money.  I  spend 
five  thousand  dollars  a  year."  "  Where  do  you  get 
it?"  asks  the  plain  young  man.  "Oh,  stocks,  enter- 
prises, all  that  sort  of  thing,  you  know."  The  plain 
young  man  has  hardly  enough  money  to  pay  his 
board,  has  to  wear  clothes  after  they  are  out  of  fash- 
ion, and  deny  himself  all  luxuries.  After  a  while  he 
gets  tired  of  his  plodding,  and  he  goes  to  the  man 
who  has  achieved  suddenly  large  estate,  and  he  says, 
•'Just  show  me  how  it  is  done."  And  he  is  shown. 
He  soon  learns  how,  and  although  he  is  almost  all  the 
time  idle  now,  and  has  resigned  his  position  in  the 
bank,  or  the  factory,  or  the  store,  he  has  more  money 


544  ROMANCE   OF   CRIME. 

than  he  ever  had,  trades  off  his  old  silver  watch  fora 
gold  one  with  a  flashing"  chain,  sets  his  hat  a  little 
further  over  on  the  side  of  his  head  than  he  ever  did, 
smokes  better  cigars,  and  more  of  them.  He  has  his 
hand  in !  Now,  if  he  can  escape  the  penitentiary  for 
three  or  four  years,  he  will  get  into  political  circles, 
and  he  will  get  political  jobs,  and  will  have  some- 
thing to  do  with  harbors,  and  pavements,  and  docks. 
Now  he  has  got  so  far  along  he  is  safe  for  perdition. 

It  is  quite  a  long  road  sometimes  for  a  man  to 
travel  before  he  gets  into  the  romance  of  crime. 
Those  are  caught  who  are  only  in  the  prosaic  stage 
of  it.  If  the  sheriffs  and  constables  would  only  leave 
them  alone  a  little  while,  they  would  steal  as  well  as 
anybody.  The)7  might  not  be  able  to  steal  a  whole 
railroad,  but  they  could  master  a  load  of  pig-iron. 

Now  I  always  thank  God  when  I  find  an  estate  like 
that  go  to  smash.  It  is  plague-struck,  and  it  blasts 
the  nation.  I  thank  God  when  it  goes  into  such  a 
wreck  it  can  never  be  gathered  up  again.  I  want 
it  to  become  so  loathsome  and  such  an  insuf- 
ferable stench  that  honest  young  men  will  take  warn 
ing.  If  God  should  put  into  money  or  its  represen- 
tative the  capacity  to  go  to  its  lawful  owner,  there 
would  not  be  a  bank  or  a  safety  deposit  in  the  United 
States  whose  walls  would  not  be  blown  out,  and 
mortgages  would  rip,  and  parchments  would  rend, 
and  gold  would  shoot,  and  beggars  would  get  on 
horseback,  and  stock  gamblers  would  go  to  the 
almshouse. 

How  many  dishonesties  in  the  making  out  pf  in- 
voices, and  in  the  plastering  of  false  labels,  and 'in  the 
filching  of  customers  of  rival  houses,  and  in  the 
making  and  breaking  of  contracts.  Young  men  are 


ROMANCE    OF    CRIME.  545 

indoctrinated  in  the  idea  that  the  sooner  they  get 
money  the  better,  and  the  getting  of  it  on  a  larger 
scale  only  proves  to  them  their  greater  ingenuity. 
There  is  a  glitter  thrown  around  about  all  these 
things.  Young  men  have  got  to  find  out  that  God 
looks  upon  sin  in  a  very  different  light. 

A  young  man  stood  behind  the  counter  in  New 
York  selling  silks  to  a  lady,  and  he  said  before  the 
sale  was  consummated  :  "  I  see  there  is  a  flaw  in  that 
silk."  The  lady  recognized  it,  and  the  sale  was  not 
consummated.  The  head  man  of  the  firm  saw  the 
interview,  and  he  wrote  home  to  the  father  of  the 
young  man  living  in  the  country,  saying  :  "  Dear  sir, 
come  and  take  your  boy  ;  he  will  never  make  a  mer- 
chant." The  father  came  down  from  the  country 
home  in  great  consternation,  as  any  father  would, 
wondering  wh'at  his  boy  had  done.  He  came  to  the 
store,  and  the  merchant  said  to  him :  "  Why,  your 
son  pointed  out  a  flaw  in  some  silk  the  other  day, 
and  spoiled  the  sale,  and  we  will  never  have  that  lady, 
probably,  again  for  a  customer,  and  your  son  never 
will  make  a  merchant."  "Is  that  all?"  said  the 
father.  "  I  am  proud  of  him.  I  wouldn't  for  the 
world  have  him  another  day  under  your  influence. 
John,  get  your  hat  and  come ;  let  us  start."  There 
are  hundreds  of  young  men  under  the  pressure,  under 
the  fascinations  thrown  around  about  commercial 
iniquity.  Thousands  of  young  men  have  gone  down 
under  the  pressure  ;  other  thousands  have  maintained 
their  integrity.  God  help  you  !  Let  me  say  to  you, 
my  young  friend,  that  you  can  be  a  great  deal 
happier  in  poverty  than  you  ever  can  be  happy  in 
a  prosperity  which  comes  from  ill-gotten  gains. 
"  Oh,"  you  say,  "  I  might  lose  my  place.  It  is  easy 

35 


ROMANCE   OF   CRIME. 

for  you  to  stand  there  and  talk,  but  it  is  no  easy 
thing  to  get  a  place  when  you  have  lost  it.  Besides 
that,  I  have  a  widowed  mother  depending  upon  my 
exertions,  and  you  must  not  be  too  reckless  in  giving 
advice  to  me."  Ah,  my  young  friend,  it  is  always 
safe  to  be  right,  but  it  is  never  safe  to  be  wrong. 
You  go  home  and  tell  your  mother  the  pressure 
under  which  you  are  in  that  store,  and  I  know  what 
she  will  say  to  you  if  she  is  worthy  of  you.  She  will 
say :  "  My  son,  come  out  from  there ;  Christ  has 
taken  care  of  us  all  these  years,  and  He  will  take 
care  of  us  now  ;  come  out  of  that." 

And  remember  that  the  man  who  gets  his  gain  by 
iniquity  will  soon  lose  it  all.  One  moment  after  his 
departure  from  life  he  will  not  own  an  opera  house, 
he  will  not  own  a  certificate  of  stock,  he  will  not  own 
one  dollar  of  government  securities,  and  the  poorest 
boy  that  stands  on  the  street  with  a  penny  in  his 
pocket,  looking  at  the  funeral  procession  of  the  dead 
cheat  as  it  goes  by,  will  have  more  money  than  that 
man  who  one  week  ago  boasted  that  he  controlled 
the  money  market. 

Oh,  there  is  such  a  fearful  fascination  in  this  day 
about  the  use  of  trust  funds. 

It  has  got  to  be  popular  to  take  the  funds  of  others 
and  speculate  with  them.  There  may  be  many  in 
this  house  who  are  practicing  that  iniquity.  Almost 
every  man  in  the  course  of  his  life  has  the  property 
of  others  put  in  his  care.  He  has  administered,  per- 
haps, for  a  dead  friend  ;  he  is  an  attorney,  and  money 
passes  from  debtor  to  creditor  through  his  hands ;  or 
he  is  in  a  commercial  establishment,  and  gets  a  salary 
lor  the  discharge  of  his  responsibilities;  or  he  is 
treasurer  of  a  philanthropic  institution,  and  money 


ROMANCE   OF   CRIME.  547 

for  the  suffering  goes  through  his  hands  ;  or  he  has 
some  office  in  city,  or  State,  or  nation,  and  taxes,  and 
subsidies,  and  supplies,  and  salaries  are  in  his  hands. 
Now,  that  is  a  trust.  That  is  as  sacred  a  trust  as 
God  can  give  a  man.  It  is  the  concentration  of  con- 
fidence. Now,  when  -that  man  takes  that  money — 
the  money  of  others — and  goes  to  speculating  with  it 
for  his  own  purposes,  he  is  guilty  of  theft,  falsehood, 
and  perjury,  and  in  the  most  intense  sense  of  the 
word  is  a  miscreant. 

There  are  families  to-day — widows  and  orphans — 
with  nothing  between  them  and  starvation  but  a 
sewing  machine,  or  kept  out  of  the  vortex  by  the 
thread  of  a  needle  red  with  the  blood  of  their  hearts, 
who  were  by  father  or  husband  left  a  competency. 
You  read  the  story  in  the  newspaper  of  those  who 
have  lost  by  a  bank  defalcation,  and  it  is  only  one 
line,  the  name  of  a  woman  you  never  heard  of,  and 
just  one  or  two  figures  telling  the  amount  of  stock 
she  had,  the  number  of  shares.  It  is  a  very  short 
line  in  a  newspaper,  but  it  is  a  line  of  agony  long  as 
time  ;  it  is  a  story  long  as  eternity. 

Now,  do  not  come  under  the  fascination  which  in- 
duces men  to  employ  trust-funds  for  purposes  of  their 
own  speculation.  Cultivate  old-fashioned  honesty. 
Remember  the  example  of  Wellington,  who,  when  he 
was  leading  the  British  army  over  the  French  fron- 
tier, and  his  army  was  very  hungry,  and  there  was 
plenty  of  plunder  on  the  French  frontier,  and  some 
of  the  men  wanted  to  take  it,  he  said  :  "  Soldiers,  do 
not  touch  that ;  God  will  take  care  of  us ;  He  will 
take  care  of  the  English  army ;  plenty  of  plunder,  I 
know,  all  around,  but  do  not  take  it."  He  told  the 
story  afterward  himself,  how  that  the  French  people 


54$  ROMANCE   OF   CRIME. 

brought  to  him  their  valuables  to  keep — he,  supposed 
to  be  their  enemy — brought  him  their  valuables  to 
keep.  And  then  he  said,  at  a  time  when  the  credi- 
tors of  the  army  were  calling  for  money  and  for  pay 
all  the  time,  and  they  had  so  much  all  around  about 
he  did  not  feel  it  right  for  him  to  take  it,  or  for  the 
army  to  take  it.  An  author  beautifully  wrote  in  re- 
gard to  it :  "  Nothing  can  be  grander  or  more  noble 
and  original  than  this  admission.  This  old  soldier, 
after  thirty  years  of  service,  this  iron  man  and  vic- 
torious general,  established  in  an  enemy's  country,  at 
the  head  of  an  immense  army,  is  afraid  of  his  credi- 
tors. This  is  a  kind  of  fear  that  has  seldom  troubled 
conquerors  and  victors,  and  I  doubt  if  the  annals  of 
war  present  anything  comparable  to  this  sublime 
simplicity." 

Oh,  that  God  would  scatter  these  fascinations 
about  fraud,  and  let  us  all  understand  that  if  I  steal 
from  you  one  dollar  I  am  a  thief,  and  if  I  steal  from 
you  $500,000  I  am  five  hundred  thousand  times  more 
of  a  thief ! 

So  there  has  been  a  great  deal  of  fascination 
thrown  around  libertinism. 

Society  is  very  severe  upon  the  impurity  that 
lurks  around  the  alleys  and  low  haunts  of  the  town. 
The  law  pursues  it.  smites  it,  incarcerates  it,  tries  to 
destroy  it.  You  know  as  well  as  I  that  society 
becomes  lenient  in  proportion  as  impurity  becomes 
affluent  or  is  in  elevated  circles,  and  finally  society 
is  silent,  or  disposed  to  palliate.  Where  is  the  judge, 
the  jury,  the  police  officer  that  dare  arraign  the 
wealthy  libertine?  He  walks  the  streets,  he  rides 
the  parks,  he  flaunts  his  iniquity  in  the  eyes  of  the 
pure.  The  hag  of  uncleanness  looks  out  of  the 


ROMANCE   OF   CRIME.  549 

tapestried  window.  Where  is  the  law  that  dares 
take  the  brazen  wretches  and  put  their  faces  in  an 
iron  frame  of  a  State  prison  window? 

Sometimes  it  seems  to  me  as  if  society  were  going- 
back  to  the  state  of  morals  of  Herculaneum,  when  it 
sculptured  its  vileness  on  pillars  and  temple  wall,  and 
nothing  but  the  lava  of  a  burning  mountain  could 
hide  the  immensity  of  crime.  At  what  time  God  will 
rise  up,  and  extirpate  these  evils  upon  society  I  know- 
not,  nor  whether  He  will  do  it  by  fire,  or  hurricane, 
or  earthquake ;  but  a  Holy  God  I  do  not  think  wilt 
stand  it  much  longer.  I  believe  the  thunderbolts  are 
hissing  hot,  and  that  when  God  comes  to  chastise  the 
community  for  these  sins,  against  which  He  has 
uttered  Himself  more  bitterly  than  against  any  other, 
the  fate  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  will  be  tolerable  as 
compared  with  the  fate  of  our  modern  society,  which 
knew  better,  but  did  worse. 

We  want  about  ten  thousand  pulpits  in  America  to 
thunder:  "All  adulterers  and  whoremongers  shall 
have  their  place  in  the  hell  that  burneth  with  fire  and 
brimstone,  which  is  the  second  death."  It  is  hell  on 
earth,  and  hell  forever.  We  have  got  to  understand 
in  Brooklyn  and  New  York,  and  all  parts  of  this 
land,  that  iniquity  on  Madison  Square,  or  Broo'klyn 
Heights,  or  Beacon  Hill,  is  as  damnable  in  the  sight 
of  God  as  it  is  in  the  slums.  Whether  it  has  canopied 
couch  of  eider-down,  or  dwells  amid  the  putridity  of 
a  low  tenement-house,  God  is  after  it  in  His  ven- 
geance. Yet  the  pulpit  of  the  Christian  Church  has 
been  so  cowed  down  on  this  subject  that  it  hardly 
dares  speak,  and  men  are  almost  apologetic  when 
they  read  the  Ten  Commandments. 

Then  look  at  the  fascinations  thrown  around  assas- 
sination. 


55°  ROMANCE  OF  CRIME. 

There  are  in  all  communities  men  who  have  taken 
the  lives  of  others  unlawfully,  not  as  executioners  of 
the  law  and  they  go  scot  free.  You  say  they  had 
their  provocations.  God  gave  life,  and  He  alone 
has  a  right  to  take  it,  and  He  may  take  it  by  visita- 
tion of  Providence,  or  by  an  executioner  of  the  law, 
who  is  His  messenger.  But  when  a  man  assumes 
that  divine  prerogative  he  touches  the  lowest  depth 
of  crime. 

Society  is  alert  for  certain  kinds  of  murder.  If  a 
citizen  going  along  the  road  at  night  is  waylaid  and 
slain  by  a  robber,  we  all  want  the  villain  arrested  and 
executed.  For  all  garroting,  for  all  beating  out  of 
life  by  a  club,  or  an  axe,  or  a  slungshot,  the  law  has 
quick  spring  and  heavy  stroke ;  but  you  know  that 
when  men  get  affluent  and  high  position,  and  they 
avenge  their  wrongs  by  taking  the  lives  of  others, 
great  sympathy  is  excited ;  lawyers  plead,  ladies 
weep,  judge  halts,  jury  is  bribed,  and  the  man  goes 
free.  If  the  verdict  happen  to  be  against  him,  a  new 
trial  is  called  on  through  some  technicality,  and  they 
adjourn  for  witnesses  that  never  come,  and  adjourn 
and  adjourn  until  the  community  has  forgotten  all 
about  it,  and  then  the  prison  door  opens,  and  the 
murderer  goes  free. 

Now,  if  capital  punishment  can  be  right,  I  say  let 
the  life  of  the  polished  murderer  go  with  the  life  of 
the  vulgar  assassin.  Let  us  have  no  partiality  of 
hemp,  no  aristocracy  of  gallows.  Do  not  let  us  float 
back  to  barbarism,  when  every  man  was  his  own 
judge,  jury  and  executioner,  and  that  man  had  the 
supremacy  who  had  the  sharpest  knife,  and  the 
strongest  arm,  and  the  quickest  step,  and  the  steal- 
thiest  revenge.  He  who  wilfully  and  in  hatred  takes 


ROMANCE   OF   CRIME.  551 

the  life  of  another  is  a  murderer,  I  care  not  what  the 
provocation  or  the  circumstances.  He  may  be 
cleared  by  an  enthusiastic  court-room,  he  may  be 
sent  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States  as 
Minister  to  Spain,  as  on  one  occasion,  or  modern 
literature  may  polish  the  crime  until  it  looks  like 
heroism  ;  but  in  the  sight  of  God  murder  is  murder, 
and  the  judgment  day  will  so  reveal  it. 

Now,  do  not  be  fascinated  by  the  glamour  thrown 
over  crime  of  whatever  sort.  Because  others  have 
habits  that  seem  brilliant,  but  yet  at  the  same  time 
are  wicked,  do  not  choose  such  faults.  Stand  in- 
dependent of  all  such  influences.  Put  your  confi- 
dence in  the  Lord  God.  He  will  be  your  strength. 
"  Vengeance  is  mine,  I  will  repay,  saith  the  Lord." 
Cultivate  old-fashioned  honesty. 


CHAPTER  LV. 

ABUSE    OF    TRUST-FUNDS. 

The  columns  of  our  custom-houses  and  of  the  State 
and  National  capitol  swathed  in  black,  and  all  the 
flags  at  half  mast  for  the  dead  treasurer. 

At  sixty-six  years  of  age  he  dies,  without  a  spot 
upon  his  reputation,  although  much  of  his  life  had 
been  spent  amid  temptations  which  have  flung  a  vast 
multitude  flat  into  the  dust.  Amid  all  the  allure- 
ments of  the  legal  profession,  and  amid  the  oppor- 
tunity of  bribe-taking  on  the  judicial  bench,  and  for 
three  years  holding  the  purse  of  the  nation,  yet  not  a 
half  penny  sticking  to  his  hand.  And  in  his  dying 
hour  he  asks  his  attendant  to  take  from  the  left  pocket 
of  his  coat  a  check  and  get  it  cashed  immediately,  so 
that  he  meets  the  expenses  of  his  own  obsequies  with 
his  own  hand  ;  and  after  paying  his  way  all  through 
life  by  hard  work,  pays  his  own  admission  fee  at  the 
door  of  the  sepulchre.  All  his  accounts  square  with 
the  United  States  Government,  square  with  the  world, 
and,  I  hope,  square  with  God.  What  a  glorious 
background  to  the  picture  of  present  epidemic  of 
swindle  amid  trust-funds  ! 

There  has  not  been  a  time  in  my  memory,  or  in 
yours,  when  there  has  been  such  utter  black  irre- 
sponsibility demonstrated  among  those  who  have  in 
charge  the  finances  of  others.  This  unroofing  of 
banks,  this  disappearance  of  administrators  with  the 

552 


ABUSE    OF   TRUST-FUNDS.  553 

funds  of  large  estates,  this  disorder  in  postoffice 
accounts,  this  deficit  amid  United  States  officials,  have 
made  a  pestilence  of  crime  which  solemnizes  every 
thinking  man  and  woman,  and  leads  every  philanthro- 
pist and  Christian  to  ask,  "Can  this  plague  be  stayed?" 
There  is  abroad  this  hour  a  simoon,  a  typhoon,  a 
sirocco.  Things  in  this  regard  are  worse  and  worse. 
I  have  sometimes  asked  myself  if  it  would  not  be  bet- 
ter for  men  making  wills  to  bequeath  their  money 
directly  to  the  executors  and  the  officers  of  courts, 
and  then  appoint  the  widows  and  orphans  as  a  com- 
mittee to  see  that  the  officers  and  trustees  of  funds 
get  all  that  does  not  belong  to  them ! 

There  are  men — you  know  them  and  I  know  them — 
who  are  sailing  yachts,  and  driving  fast  horses,  and 
holding  membership  in  expensive  clubs,  and  owning 
country  seats,  who  would  not  be  worth  a  dollar  if 
they  returned  to  others  their  just  rights.  A  crash 
comes,  and  there  is  a  reverse,  and  the  man  fails,  and 
he  retires  from  the  world,  and  seems  about  to  go  into 
monastic  life ;  but  in  two  or  three  years  he  blossoms 
out  again,  having  compromised  with  his  creditors — 
that  is,  paid  them  nothing  but  regrets — and  the  only 
difference  between  the  second  chapter  of  prosperity 
and  the  first  chapter  of  prosperity  is,  that  in  his  pic- 
ture gallery  now  he  has  Raphaels  and  Murillos  in- 
stead of  Kensetts,  and  his  horses  go  the  mile  twenty 
seconds  sooner  than  their  predecessors,  and  instead 
of  one  country  seat  he  has  three.  1  have  watched 
and  I  have  noticed  that  nine  out  of  ten  of  the  failures 
in  what  is  called  high  life  leave  men  with  more 
money  after  the  failure  than  they  had  before,  and 
that  their  failure  is  only  a  stratagem  to  get  rid  of  the 
payment  of  honest  debts,  and  to  put  the  world  off  the 


554  ABUSE   OF   TRUST   FUNDS. 

the  track  while  they  introduce  a  more  stupendous 
swindle. 

It  is,  mv  Christian  friends,  most  appalling  that, 
these  things  are  possible.  I  blame,  first  of  all,  direc- 
tors of  banks  and  boards  having  in  charge  great 
financial  interests.  It  ought  not  be  possible  for  the 
president  of  a  bank,  or  the  cashier,  or  any  officer  to 
carry  on  a  swindle  in  an  institution  year  after  year 
and  year  after  year  without  detection.  If  a  swindle 
go  on  one  year,  two  years,  three  years,  four  years  in 
a  moneyed  institution,  the  directors  either  have  part 
in  the  infamy  and  pocket  their  share  of  the  theft,  or 
they  are  guilty  of  a  negligence  for  which  God  will 
hold  them  as  responsible  as  He  holds  the  acknowl- 
edged defrauders.  What  right  have  our  large  busi- 
ness men  to  allow  their  names  to  be  advertised  as 
directors,  so  that  the  unsophisticated  put  their  money 
in  the  institution,  or  buy  script  thereof,  when  the 
directors  are  doing  nothing  for  the  safety  of  that  in- 
stitution? It  is  a  deception  appalling  and  monstrous, 
and  in  the  name  of  God  and  the  rights  of  men  I 
denounce  it. 

Many,  with  small  surplus  and  with  money  not 
needed  for  immediate  use,  but  which  will,  after  a 
while,  be  indispensable,  have  no  friends  capable  of 
advising  them,  and,  in  consequence,  they  take  the 
moral  character  of  men  advertised  as  directors.  And 
there  are  people  who  say,  "I  don't  know  anything 
about  these  things,  but  there  is  a  man  who  is  in  that 
board  of  directors,  and  there  is  a  man,  and  there  is  a 
man,  and  I  know  they  are  all  good  men,  and  pros- 
perous business  men,  and  they  would  not  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  that  which  is  dishonorable."  When 
the  bank  goes  over,  then  the  small  earnings  and  the  for- 


ABUSE   OF   TRUST   FUNDS.  555 

tunes  of  widows  and  orphans  and  the  helplessly  aged 
go  with  the  bank,  and  the  directors  stand  with  idiotic 
stare,  and  when  the  inquiry  is  made  by  the  frenzied 
depositors  and  stockholders,  and  when  outraged  com- 
munity arraigns  them,  the  directors  say :  "  Oh,  I 
thought  it  was  all  right;  I  didn't  know  there  was 
anything  wrong."  They  ought  to  have  known. 
They  stood  in  a  position  where  they  deluded  the 
public  with  the  idea  that  they  did  know,  and  that  they 
were  carefully  observant  of  what  was  going  on.  Ad- 
vertised as  directors,  they  did  not  direct.  They  had 
all  the  account  books  open  before  them,  and  they 
could  have  audited  the  accounts  for  themselves,  or 
they  could  have  taken  in  some  expert,  and  had  the 
whole  thing  understood.  There  are,  it  seems,  many 
business  men  who  have  a  pride  in  being  directors  in 
a  great  many  institutions,  and  they  know  nothing 
about  some  of  those  institutions,  except  whether  they 
get  their  dividends  or  not,  and  their  name  is  used  as 
a  decoy  duck  to  get  other  people  to  come  near  enough 
to  be  made  game  of. 

It  is  needed  that  five  thousand  directors  of  banks, 
and  of  insurance  companies,  and  of  moneyed  institu- 
tions to-morrow  resign  or  attend  to  their  business. 
Just  as  long  as  fraud  is  so  easy  in  business  life  there 
will  be  plenty  of  it.  When  you  arrest  the  president 
of  a  bank  and  the  cashier  of  a  bank  for  embezzlement, 
you  want  plenty  of  sheriffs  out  that  day  to  arrest  all 
the  directors.  They  are  all  guilty  either  of  neglect 
or  of  complicity,  if  an  embezzlement  be  going  on 
three  or  four  years. 

"  Oh,"  says  some  one,  "you  had  better  preach  the 
Gospel  and  let  business  men  go."  My  reply  is,  if 
your  Gospel  does  not  inspire  common  honesty  in 


Feise  Exchanges  Books 

and  Musical  Instruments 

W.  235  Riverside  A  Ye, 


5 56  ABUSE   OF   TRUST   FUNDS. 

dealings  among  men,  the  sooner  you  close  up  that 
Gospel  and  throw  it  into  the  depths  of  the  Atlantic 
the  better. 

An  orthodox  swindler  is  worse  than  a  heterodox 
swindler,  and  your  recitation  of  creeds,  and  cathe- 
chisms,  and  a  sip  out  of  every  communion  chalice 
that  ever  glittered  in  Christendom,  will  not  save  your 
soul  unless  your  business  life  corresponds  with  your 
Christian  profession.  The  purest  institution  on  earth 
is  the  Church,  and  there  are  more  men  and  women 
of  elevated  character  in  the  Christian  Church  than  in 
any  fifty  institutions  the  world  has  ever  seen  ;  but  I 
declare  what  everybody  knows  when  I  say  that  some 
of  the  greatest  scoundrels  in  the  world  have  belonged 
to  the  Church.  That  time  must  cease  when  men 
practicing  dishonesty  all  the  week  can  sit  in  church 
and  get  fat  on  sermons  about  heaven,  when  the  pulpit 
ought  to  preach  that  which  would  either  bring  them 
to  repentance  for  their  sin,  or  thunder  them  out  of 
the  Christian  communion,  where  their  presence  is  a 
sacrilege  and  an  infamy. 

We  must  especially  deplore  recent  events  in  that 
they  damage  the  banking  institution,  which  is  the 
great  convenience  of  the  centuries,  indispensable  to 
commerce,  and  the  advance  of  nations.  With  one 
hand  the  bank  blesses  the  lender,  and  with  the  other 
the  borrower.  It  was  born  of  the  necessities  of  the 
ages,  and  is  venerable  with  the  marks  of  thousands 
of  years.  More  than  two  hundred  years  before 
Christ  the  Bank  of  Ilium  existed,  and  paid  its  de- 
positors ten  per  cent.  The  Bible  in  more  than  one 
place  regulates  the  rate  of  interest.  The  Bank  of 
Venice  was  established  in  1171,  and  had  such  high 
credit  that  its  bills  were  at  a  premium  above  coins 


ABUSE   OF  TRUST   FUNDS.  557 

which  were  frequently  clipped.  The  Bank  of  Venice 
founded  in  1345.  The  Bank  of  Barcelona  founded 
in  1401.  The  Bank  of  Amsterdam  founded  in  1609. 
The  Bank  of  Hamburg  founded  in  1619,  its  circu- 
lation based  on  great  silver  bars  in  the  vaults.  Bank 
of  England  started  by  William  Patterson  in  1694, 
and  to  this  day  managing  the  immense  debt  of  Eng- 
land. The  Bank  of  Scotland  founded  in  1695.  The 
Bank  of  Ireland  founded  in  1783.  The  Bank  of  North 
America  planned  by  Robert  Morris  in  1781,  without 
whose  financial  help  all  the  bravery  of  our  grand- 
fathers would  not  have  achieved  American  inde- 
pendence. And  now  we  have  banks  by  the  thousand. 
On  their  broad  shoulders  are  the  interest  of  private 
individual  and  great  corporations.  In  them  are  the 
great  arteries  through  which  runs  the  current  of  a 
nation's  life  They  have  been  the  rescuers  of  thou- 
sands of  financiers  in  day  of  business  exigency.  They 
stand  for  accommodation,  for  facility,  for  individual, 
State,  and  national  relief,  and  at  their  head  and  in 
their  management  there  is  as  much  integrity  and 
moral  worth  as  in  any  class  of  men,  and  probably 
more.  How  nefarious,  then,  the  behavior  of  those 
who  bring  disrepute  upon  this  venerable,  benign,  and 
God-honored  institution. 

Recent  events  are  very  much  to  be  deplored, 
because  they  seem  to  fly  into  the  face  of  that  divine 
goodness  which  seems  determined  to  bless  this  land. 
Here  we  are  in  the  fourth  great  national  harvest,  the 
last  greater  than  all.  The  sheaves  have  hardly  got 
into  the  garner.  The  wheat  gamblers  get  hold  the 
wheat,  the  corn  gamblers  get  hold  the  corn.  The 
great  ocean  tide  of  God's  mercy  put  back  by  these 
dykes  of  dishonest  resistance.  When  God  provides 


558  ABUSE   OF   TRUST   FUNDS. 

enough  food  and  clothing  to  feed  and  apparel  this 
nation  like  princes,  dishonest  men  scrabble  for  more 
than  their  share,  and  run  all  hazards  and  keep  every- 
thing rocking  with  uncertainty,  and  good  people  say, 
"  What  next  ?" 

Every  week  has  a  new  revelation  of  business 
crime.  It  is  an  epidemic.  And  how  many  more 
presidents  of  banks  and  cashiers  of  banks  are  gam- 
bling with  other  people's  money,  and  how  many  bank 
directors  are  sitting  in  imbecile  silence,  letting  the 
perfidy  go  on,  a  great  and  patient  God  only  knows. 
My  opinion  is,  that  we  have  nearly  touched  bottom. 

I  think  that  the  last  summer  was  the  most  valuable 
summer  we  have  had  in  ten  years.  The  wind  has 
been  pricked  out  of  the  bubble  of  American  specu- 
lation. People  who  thought  that  the  Judgment  Day 
was  at  least  five  thousand  years  off,  found  it  in  the 
summer  of  1884.  This  nation  has  been  taught,  as 
never  before,  people  had  better  keep  their  hands  out 
of  other  people's  pockets.  Great  businesses  founded 
on  borrowed  capital  have  been  obliterated,  and  men 
who  had  nothing,  lost  all  they  had. 

If  you  want  to  take  your  own  money,  and  put  it 
into  kites  to  fly  on  the  commons,  or  into  pipes  to 
blow  soap-bubbles,  you  may  do  so  without  wronging 
society  especially,  unless  your  helpless  children  are 
tumbled  into  the  poorhouse  to  be  taken  care  of  by 
the  public,  and  they  probably  will ;  but  you  have  no 
right  to  take  the  property  of  others,  and  turn  it  into 
kites  to  fly,  and  soap-bubbles  to  blow. 

There  is  one  word  that  has  dragged  down  more 
people  into  bankruptcy,  and  State  prison,  and  perdi- 
tion than  any  other  word  in  the  commercial  world, 
and  that  is  the  word  "borrow."  The  word  is  re- 


ABUSE   OF   TRUST   FUNDS.  559 

sponsible  for  nearly  all  the  defalcations  and  embez- 
zlements, and  financial  consternations  of  the  last 
four  months,  and  of  the  last  forty.  When  an  exec- 
utor takes  money  out  of  a  large  estate  to  speculate 
with  it,  he  does  not  purloin  it ;  he  only  "borrows." 
When  a  banker  makes  an  overdraft  that  he  may  go 
into  speculation,  he  does  not  commit  a  theft  ;  he 
only  "borrows."  When  some  man  of  large  financial 
institution,  through  flaming  advertisement  in  some 
religious  paper,  or  gilt-edged  certificate,  gets  country 
people  to  put  their  money  into  some  enterprise  for 
carrying  on  an  undeveloped  nothing,  it  is  not  fraud  ; 
he  only  "borrows."  When  a  young  man  having  easy 
access  to  a  money  drawer,  or  a  confidential  clerk 
having  easy  access  to  the  books,  takes  a  certain 
amount  of  money,  and  with  it  makes  a  Wall  Street 
excursion,  he  is  going  to  put  it  back,  he  is  going  to 
put  it  all  back,  he  is  going  to  put  it  back  pretty  soon  ; 
he  only  "borrows."  What  is  needed  is  some  one 
with  giant  limb  to  stand  at  the  curbstone  at  the  foot 
of  Trinity  Church,  and  at  the  head  of  Wall  Street, 
and  when  that  word  "borrow"  comes  bounding  along, 
kick  it  clear  to  Wall  Street  Ferry  ;  and  if  it  strike  the 
deck  of  the  ferry-boat  and  bound  clear  over  to 
Brooklyn  Heights  and  Brooklyn  Hill,  all  the  better 
for  the  City  of  Churches.  Why,  when  you  are  going 
to  do  wrong,  pronounce  so  long  a  word  as  the  word 
borrow,  a  word  of  six  letters,  when  you  can  get  a 
short  word,  a  word  more  accurate,  a  word  more  de- 
scriptive of  the  reality,  a  word  of  five  letters — the 
word  steal. 

Ah  !  my  friends,  it  is  high  time  that  people  learn 
that  it  is  death  to  borrow  for  speculative  purposes. 
We  all  sometimes  borrow.  We  borrow  legitimately, 


560  ABUSE   OF   TRUST   FUNDS. 

and  we  borrow  with  the  divine  favor.  Christ,  in  His 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  enjoined,  "  From  him  that 
would  borrow  of  thee,  turn  not  thou  away."  A 
young  man  borrows  money  to  get  his  education ;  all 
right.  A  man  purchases  property  and  cannot  pay  all 
down  in  cash,  and  rightly  borrows  on  mortgage. 
There  are  crises  in  business  when  it  would  be  wrong 
not  to  borrow.  Never  speculate  on  borrowed  money 
— not  a  dollar,  not  a  cent,  not  a  farthing.  Young 
men,  young  men,  I  warn  you  by  your  worldly  pros- 
pects and  the  value  of  your  immortal  souls,  do  not  do 
it.  There  are  breakers  distinguished  for  their  ship- 
wrecks— the  Han  ways,  the  Needles,  the  Caskets,  the 
Douvers,  the  Anderlos,  the  Skerries — and  many  a 
craft  has  gone  to  pieces  on  those  rocks ;  but  I  have  to 
tell  you  that  all  the  Hanways,  and  the  Needles,  and 
the  Caskets,  and  the  Skerries  are  as  nothing  compared 
with  the  long  line  of  breakers  which  bound  the  ocean 
of  commercial  life  north,  south,  east,  and  west  with 
the  white  foam  of  their  despair,  and  the  dirge  of  their 
damnation. 

If  I  had  only  a  worldly  weapon  to  use  on  this  sub- 
ject I  would  give  you  the  fact  fresh  from  the  highest 
authority  that  ninety  per  cent,  of  those  who  go  into 
speculation  in  Wall  Street  lose  all ;  but  I  have  a  bet- 
ter warning  than  a  worldly  warning.  From  the 
place  where  men  have  perished — body,  mind,  and 
soul — stand  off,  stand  off!  Abstract  pulpit  discus- 
sion must  step  aside  on  this  question.  Faith  and 
repentance  are  absolutely  necessary,  but  faith  and 
repentance  are  no  more  doctrines  of  the  Bible  than 
commercial  integrity.  Render  to  all  their  dues. 
Owe  no  man  anything.  And  while  I  mean  to  preach 
faith  and  repentance,  more  and  more  to  preach  them, 


ABUSE   OF   TRUST   FUNDS.  561 

I  do  not  mean  to  spend  any  time  in  chasing  the 
Hittites,  and  Jebusites,  and  Gurgushites  of  Bible 
times,  when  there  are  so  many  evils  right  around  us, 
destroying  men  and  women  for  time  and  for  eternity. 
The  greatest  evangelistic  preacher  the  world  ever 
saw,  a  man  who  died  for  his  evangelism — peerless 
Paul— wrote  to  the  Romans :  "  Provide  things 
honest  in  the  sight  of  all  men  ;"  wrote  to  the  Co- 
rinthians, "  Do  that  which  is  honest  ;"  wrote  to  the 
Philippians,  "  Whatsoever  things  are  honest ;"  wrote 
to  the  Hebrews,  "  Willing  in  all  things  to  live 
honestly."  The  Bible  says  that  faith  without  works 
is  dead,  which  being  liberally  translated,  means  that 
if  your  business  life  does  not  correspond  with  your 
profession,  your  religion  is  a  humbug. 

Here  is  something  that  needs  to  be  sounded  into 
the  ears  of  all  the  young  men  of  America,  and  iter- 
ated, and  reiterated  ;  if  this  country  is  ever  to  be 
delivered  from  its  calamities,  and  commercial  pros- 
perity is  to  be  established  and  perpetuated,  live 
within  your  means. 

I  have  the  highest  commercial  authority  for  saying 
that  when  the  trouble  broke  out  in  Wall  Street  last 
May,  there  were  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  million 
dollars  in  suspense  which  had  already  been  spent. 
Spend  no  more  than  you  make.  And  let  us  adjust 
all  our  business,  and  our  homes,  by  the  principles  of 
the  Christian  religion. 

Our  religion  ought  to  mean  just  as  much  on  Sat- 
urday and  Monday,  as  on  the  day  between,  and  not 
be  a  mere  periphrasis  of  sanctity.  Our  religion  ought 
to  first  clean  our  hearts,  and  then  it  ought  to  clean 
our  lives.  Religion  is  not,  as  some  seem  to  think,  a 
sort  of  church  delectation,  a  kind  of  confectionery,  a 

36 


562  ABUSE   OF   TRUST   FUNDS. 

sort  of  spiritual  caramel,  or  holy  gum  drop,  or  sanc- 
tified peppermint,  or  theological  anaesthetic.  It  is  an 
omnipotent  principle,  all-controlling,  all-conquering. 
You  may  get  along  with  something  less  than  that, 
and  you  may  deceive  yourself  with  it;  but  you  can- 
not deceive  God,  and  you  cannot  deceive  the  world. 
The  keen  business  man  will  put  on  his  spectacles,  and 
he  will  look  clear  through  to  the  back  of  your  head, 
and  see  whether  your  religion  is  a  fiction,  or  a  fact. 
And  you  cannot  hide  your  samples  of  sugar,  or  rice, 
or  tea,  or  coffee,  if  they  are  false  ;  you  cannot  hide 
them  under  the  cloth  of  a  communion  table.  All 
your  prayers  go  for  nothing,  so  long  as  you  misrep- 
resent your  banking  institution,  and  in  the  amount  of 
the  resources  you  put  down  more  specie,  and  more 
fractional  currency,  and  more  clearing-house  certifi- 
cates, and  more  legal-tender  notes,  and  more  loans, 
and  more  discounts,  than  there  really  are,  and  when 
you  give  an  account  of  your  liabilities  you  do  not 
mention  all  the  unpaid  dividends,  and  the  United 
States  bank-notes  outstanding,  and  the  individual  de- 
posits, and  the  obligations  to  other  banks  and  bankers. 
An  authority  more  scrutinizing  than  that  of  any 
bank-examiner  will  go  through,  and  through,  and 
through  your  business. 


CHAPTER  LVI. 

WALL   STREET   DEFALCATION. 

Across  the  island  of  New  York  in  1685  a  wall  of 
earth  and  stone  was  built — a  wall  cannon  mounted  to 
keep  back  the  savages.  Along  this  wall  ran  a  street, 
and  as  the  street  kept  the  line  of  the  wall,  it  was  ap- 
propriately called  Wall  Street.  Short,  narrow,  un- 
architectural,  and  yet  unique  in  its  history,  and, 
excepting-  Lombard  Street,  London,  the  mightiest 
street  in  the  world. 

There  the  United  States  government  was  born. 
There  Washington  held  his  levees.  There  Mrs. 
Adams  and  Mrs.  Arnold  and  Mrs.  Caldwell  and  Mrs. 
Knox  and  other  brilliant  women  of  the  Revolution 
displayed  their  charms.  There  preached  Wither- 
spoon,  Jonathan  Edwards,  and  George  Whitefield. 
There  Dr.  John  Mason  chided  Alexander  Hamilton 
for  writing  the  Constitution  without  any  God  in  it. 
There  negroes  were  sold  in  the  slave-mart.  The 
criminals  were  harnessed  to  wheelbarrows  and  com- 
pelled to  draw  burdens.  There  they  were  lashed 
through  the  street  behind  carts  to  which  they  were 
fastened. 

That  street  has  seen  the  coronation  and  the  burial 
of  ten  thousand  fortunes.  The  abode  of  just  the  op- 
posites — unswerving  integrity  and  tip-top  scoundrel- 
ism,  Heaven-descended  charity  and  bloodless  Shy- 
lockism.  The  history  of  Wall  street  would  be  the 

563 


564  WALL   STREET   DEFALCATION. 

history  of  the  commerce  of  America.  There  is  no 
more  absorbing  question  in  America  to-day  than  this : 
What  caused  "  Black  Wednesday  ?"  What  caused 
"  Black  Friday  ?"  What  has  caused  all  the  black 
days  of  financial  disaster  with  which  Wall  street  has 
been  connected  for  the  last  forty  years?  Some  say  it 
is  the  credit  system.  Something  back  of  that.  Some 
say  it  is  the  spirit  of  gambling  ever  and  anon  be- 
coming epidemic.  Something  back  of  that.  Some 
say  it  is  the  sudden  shrinkage  in  the  value  of  securi- 
ties, which  even  the  most  honest  and  intelligent  men 
could  not  have  foreseen.  Something  back  of  that.  I 
will  give  you  the  primal  cause  of  all  these  disturbances. 
It  is  the  extravagance  of  modern  society  which  impels 
a  man  to  spend  more  money  than  he  can  honestly 
make,  and  he  goes  into  Wall  street  in  order  to  get 
the  means  for  inordinate  display  ;  and  sometimes  the 
man  is  to  blame,  and  sometimes  his  wife,  and  oftener 
both.  Five  thousand  dollars  income,  ten  thousand 
dollars,  twenty  thousand  dollars  income,  are  not 
enough  for  a  man  to  keep  up  the  style  of  living  he 
proposes,  and  therefore  he  steers  his  bark  toward  the 
maelstrom.  Other  men  have  suddenly  snatched  up 
fifty  or  a  hundred  thousand  dollars — why  not  he? 
The  present  income  of  the  man  not  being  large 
enough,  he  must  move  earth  and  hell  to  catch  up  with 
his  neighbors.  Others  have  a  country  seat — so  must 
he.  Others  have  an  extravagant  caterer — so  must  he. 
Others  have  a  palatial  residence — so  must  he. 

Extravagance  is  the  cause  of  all  the  defalcations  of 
the  last  forty  years,  and  if  you  will  go  through  the 
history  of  all  the  great  panics  and  the  great  financial 
disturbances,  no  sooner  have  you  found  the  story 
than  right  back  of  it  you  find  the  story  of  how  many 


WALL   STREET   DEFALCATION.  565 

horses  the  man  had,  how  many  carriages  the  man 
had,  how  many  residences  in  the  country  the  man 
had,  how  many  banquets  the  man  gave, — always,  and 
not  one  exception,  for  the  last  forty  years,  either 
directly  or  indirectly,  extravagance  the  cause. 

Now,  for  the  elegances  and  the  refinements  and 
the  decorations  of  life  I  cast  my  vote.  While  I 
am  considering  this  subject  a  basket  of  flowers  is 
handed  in — flowefs  paradisaical  in  their  beauty. 
White  calla  with  a  green  background  of  begonia. 
A  cluster  of  heliotropes  nestling  in  some  geraniums. 
Sepal  and  perianth  bearing  on  them  the  marks  of 
God's  finger.  When  I  see  that  basket  of  flowers 
they  persuade  me  that  God  loves  beauty  and  adorn- 
ment and  decoration.  God  might  have  made  the 
earth  so  as  to  supply  the  gross  demands  of  sense,  but 
left  it  without  adornment  or  attraction.  Instead  of 
the  variegated  colors  of  the  seasons,  the  earth  might 
have  worn  an  unchanging  dull  brown.  The  tree 
might  have  put  forth  its  fruit  without  the  prophecy 
of  leaf  or  blossom.  Niagara  might  have  come  down 
in  gradual  descent  without  thunder-winged  spray. 

Look  out  of  your  window  any  morning  after  there 
has  been  a  dew,  and  see  whether  God  loves  jewels. 
Put  a  crystal  of  snow  under  a  microscope,  and  see 
what  God  thinks  of  architecture.  God  commanded 
the  priest  of  olden  time  to  have  his  robe  adorned 
with  a  wreath  of  gold,  and  the  hem  of  his  garment 
to  be  embroidered  in  pomegranates.  The  earth 
sleeps,  and  God  blankets  it  with  the  brilliants  of  the 
night  sky.  The  world  wakes,  and  God  washes  it 
from  the  burnished  laver  of  the  sunrise.  So  I  have 
not  much  patience  with  a  man  who  talks  as  though 
decoration  and  adornment  and  the  elegances  of  life 


566  WALL   STREET   DEFALCATION. 

are  a  sin  when  they  are  divinely  recommended.  But 
there  is  a  line  to  be  drawn  between  adornment  and 
decorations  that  we  can  afford  and  those  we  cannot 
afford,  and  when  a  man  crosses  that  line  he  becomes 
culpable.  I  cannot  tell  you  what  is  extravagant  for 
you.  You  cannot  tell  me  what  is  extravagant  for 
me.  What  is  right  for  a  queen  may  be  squandering 
for  a  duchess.  What  may  be  economical  for  you,  a 
man  with  a  larger  income,  will  be 'wicked  waste  for 
me,  with  smaller  income.  There  is  no  iron  rule  on 
this  subject.  Every  man  before  God  and  on  his 
knees  must  judge  what  is  extravagance,  and  when  a 
man  goes  into  expenditures  beyond  his  means  he  is 
extravagant.  When  a  man  buys  anything  he  cannot 
pay  for,  he  is  extravagant. 

There  are  tamilies  in  all  our  cities  who  can  hardly 
pay  their  rent,  and  who  owe  all  the  merchants  in  the 
neighborhood,  and  yet  have  an  apparel  unfit  for 
their  circumstances,  and  are  all  the  time  sailing  so 
near  shore  that  business  misfortune  or  an  attack  of 
sickness  prepares  them  for  pauperism.  You  know 
very  well  there  are  thousands  of  families  in  our  great 
cities  who  stay  HI  neighborhoods  until  they  have 
exhausted  all  their  capacity  to  get  trusted.  They 
stay  in  the  neighborhoods  until  the  druggist  will  let 
them  have  no  more  medicines,  and  the  butcher  will 
give  them  no  more  meat,  and  the  bakers  will  give 
them  no  more  bread,  and  the  grocery-men  will  give 
them  no  more  sugar.  Then  they  find  the  region 
unhealthy,  and  they  hire  a  carman,  whom  they  never 
pay,  to  take  them  to  some  new  quarters,  where  the 
merchants,  the  druggists,  the  butchers,  the  bakers, 
and  the  grocery  men  come  and  give  Jthem  the  best 
rounds  of  beef  and  the  best  sugars  and  the  best  mer- 


WALL   STKKF.T    DEFALCATION.  567 

chandise  of  all  sorts,  until  they  find  out  that  the  only 
compensation  they  are  going  to  get  is  the  acquaint- 
ance of  the  patrons.  There  are  at  least  five  thou- 
sand such  thieves  as  that  in  Brooklyn.  You  see  I 
call  them  by  the  right  name,  for  if  a  man  buys  any- 
thing that  he  does  not  mean  to  pay  for,  he  is  a  thief. 

Of  course,  sometimes  men  are  flung  of  misfortunes 
and  they  cannot,  pay.  I  know  men  who  are  just  as 
honest  in  having  failed  as  other  men  are  honest  in 
succeeding.  I  suppose  there  is  hardly  a  man  who 
has  gone  through  life  but  there  have  been  some  times 
when  he  has  been  so  flung  of  misfortune  he  could 
not  meet  his  obligations.  But  all  that  I  put  aside. 
There  are  a  multitude  of  people  who  buy  that  which 
they  never  intend  to  pay  for,  for  which  there  is  no 
reasonable  expectation  they  will  ever  be  able  to  pav. 
Now,  why  not  save  the  merchant  as  much  as  you 
can  ?  Why  not  go  some  day  to  his  store,  and  when 
nobody  is  looking,  just  shoulder  the  ham  or  the  spare- 
rib,  and  in  modest  silence  steal  away  ?  That  would 
be  less  criminal,  because  in  the  other  way  you  take 
not  only  the  man's  goods,  but  you  take  the  time  of 
the  merchant,  and  the  time  of  his  accountant,  and 
you  take  the  time  of  the  messenger  who  brought  you 
the  goods.  Now,  if  you  must  steal,  steal  in  a  way 
to  do  as  little  damage  to  the  trader  as  possible. 

John  Randolph  arose  in  the  American  Senate  when 
a  question  of  national  finance  was  being  discussed, 
and  stretching  himself  to  his  full  height,  in  a  shrill 
voice  he  cried  out :  "  Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  discov- 
ered the  philosopher's  stone,  which  turns  everything 
into  gold  :  Pay  as  you  go !  "  Society  has  got  to  be 
reconstructed  on  this  subject,  or  these  times  of  defal- 
cation will  never  end.  You  have  no  right  to  ride  in 


568  WALL   STREET    DEFALCATION. 

a  carriage  for  which  you  are  hopelessly  in  debt  to 
the  wheelwright  who  furnished  the  landau,  and  to 
the  horse  dealer  who  provided  the  blooded  span,  and 
to  the  harness-maker  who  caparisoned  the  gay  steeds, 
and  to  the  livery-man  who  has  provided  the  stabling, 
and  to  the  driver  who  with  resetted  hat  sits  on  the 
coach-box. 

Oh,  I  am  so  glad  it  is  not  the  absolute  necessities 
of  life  which  send  people  out  into  dishonesties  and 
fling  them  into  misfortunes.  It  is  almost  always 
the  superfluities.  God  has  promised  us  a  house,  but 
not  a  palace;  raiment,  but  not  chinchilla;  food,  but 
not  canvas-back  duck.  I  am  yet  to  see  one  of  these 
great  panics,  or  one  of  these  Wall  Street  defalcations, 
which  is  not  connected  in  some  way  with  extrav- 
agance. 

Extravagance  accounts  for  the  disturbance  of  na- 
tional finances.  Aggregations  are  made  up  of  units, 
and  when  one-half  of  the  people  of  this  country  owe 
the  other  half,  how  can  we  expect  financial  pros- 
perity ?  Every  four  years  we  get  a  great  spasm  of 
virtue,  and  when  a  President  is  to  be  elected  we  say, 
"  Now,  down  with  the  old  administration,  and  let  us 
have  another  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  let  us 
have  a  new  deal  of  things,  and  then  we  will  get  over 
all  our  perturbation."  1  do  not  care  who  is  President, 
or  who  is  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  or  how  much 
breadstuffs  go  out  of  the  country,  or  how  much 
gold  is  imported,  until  we  learn  to  pay  our  debts,  and 
it  becomes  a  general  theory  in  this  country  that  men 
must  buy  no  more  than  they  can  pay  for — until  that 
time  comes  there  will  be  no  permanent  prosperity. 
Look  at  the  pernicious  extravagance  :  Take  the  one 
fact  that  New  York  every  year  pays  two  million  dol- 


WALL   STREET   DEFALCATION.  569 

Jars  for  theatrical  amusements.  While  once  in  a 
while  a  Henry  Irving  or  an  Edwin  Booth  or  a  Joseph 
Jefferson  thrills  a  great  audience  with  tragedy,  you 
know  as  well  as  I  do  that  the  vast  majority  of  the 
theaters  of  New  York  are  as  debased,  as  debased  they 
can  be,  as  unclean,  as  unclean  they  can  be,  and  as 
damnable,  as  damnable  they  can  be.  Two  million 
dollars — the  vast  majority  of  those  dollars  going  up 
in  a  wrong  direction. 

Ninety-five  millions  paid  in  this  country  for  cigars 
and  tobacco  a  year.  One  thousand  five  hundred  mil- 
lion dollars  paid  for  strong  drink  in  one  year  in  this 
country.  With  such  extravagance,  pernicious  ex- 
travagance, can  there  be  any  permanent  prosperity  ? 
Business  men,  cool-headed  business  men,  is  such  a 
thing  a  possibility?  One  thousand  five  hundred  mil- 
lion dollars  for  rum.  These  extravagances  also  ac- 
count, as  I  have  already  hinted,  for  the  positive 
crimes,  the  forgeries,  the  absconding  of  the  officers 
of  the  banks.  The  store  on  Broadway  and  the  office 
on  Wall  Street  swamped  by  the  residence  on  Madi- 
son Square.  The  father's,  the  husband's  craft  cap- 
sized by  carrying  too  much  domestic  sail.  That  is 
what  springs  the  leak  in  the  merchant's  money  till. 
That  is  what  cracks  the  pistols  of  the  suicides.  That 
is  what  tears  down  Marine  Bank.  That  is  what 
stops  insurance  companies.  That  is  what  halts  this 
nation  again  and  again  in  its  triumphal  march  of 
prosperity.  In  the  presence  of  this  audience  to-day, 
and  the  American  people  so  far  as  I  can  get  their 
attention,  I  want  to  arraign  this  monster  curse  of  ex- 
travagance, and  I  want  you  to  pelt  it  with  your  scorn 
and  hurl  at  it  yonr  anathema. 

Look  at  the  one  fact  that  it  is  a  matter  of  solid  sta- 


5/0  WALL   STREET   DEFALCATION. 

tistics,  that  in  this  country,  in  the  cities  of  Ne\v  York 
and  Brooklyn — I  will  narrow  it  down — in  the  cities 
of  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  it  is  estimated  that  there 
are  now  over  five  thousand  women  whose  apparel 
costs  them  over  two  thousand  dollars  a  year  each. 
Things  have  got  to  such  a  pass  that  when  we  cry 
over  our  sins  in  church,  we  wipe  the  tears  away 
with  a  hundred-and-fifty-dollar  pocket-handkerchief ! 

Extravagance  accounts  for  much  of  the  pauperism. 
Who  are  these  people  whom  you  have  to  help  ? 
Many  of  them  are  the  children  of  parents  who  had 
plenty,  lived  in  luxury,  had  more  than  they  needed, 
spent  all  they  had,  spent  more,  too,  then  died,  and  left 
their  families  in  poverty,  Some  of  those  who  call 
on  you  now  for  aid  had  an  ancestry  that  supped  on 
Burgundy  and  woodcock.  I  could  name  a  score  of 
men  who  have  every  luxury.  They  smoke  the  best 
cigars,  and  they  drink  the  finest  wines,  and  they  have 
the  grandest  surroundings,  and  when  they  die  their 
families  will  go  on  the  cold  charity  of  the  world. 
Now,  the  death  of  such  a  man  is  a  grand  larceny. 
He  swindles  the  world  as  he  goes  into  his  coffin,  and 
he  deserves  to  have  his  bones  sold  to  the  medical 
museum  for  anatomical  specimens,  the  proceeds  to 
furnish  bread  for  his  children. 

I  know  it  cuts  close.  Some  of  you  make  a  great 
swash  in  life,  and  after  awhile  you  will  die,  and  min- 
isters will  be  sent  for  to  come  and  stand  by  your 
coffin  and  lie  about  your  excellences ;  but  they  will 
not  come.  If  you  send  for  me,  I  will  tell  you  what 
my  text  will  be  :  "  He  that  provideth  not  for  his  own, 
and  especially  for  those  of  his  own  household,  is 
worse  than  an  infidel."  And  yet  we  find  Christian 
men,  men  of  large  means,  who  sometimes  talk  elo- 


WALL   STREET   DEFALCATION.  5/1 

quently  about  the  Christian  Church  and  about 
civilization,  expending  everything  on  themselves  and 
nothing  on  the  cause  of  God,  and  they  crack  the 
back  of  their  Palais  Royal  glove  in  trying  to  hide 
the  one  cent  they  put  in  the  Lord's  treasury.  What 
an  apportionment !  Twenty  thousand  dollars  for 
ourselves,  and  one  cent  for  God.  Ah  !  my  friends, 
this  extravagance  accounts  for  a  great  deal  of  what 
the  cause  of  God  suffers. 

And  the  desecration  goes  on,  even  to  the  funeral 
day.  You  know  very  well  that  there  are  men  who 
die  solvent,  but  the  expenses  are  so  great  before  they 
get  under  ground  they  are  insolvent.  There  are 
families  that  go  into  penury  in  wicked  response  to 
the  demands  of  this  day.  They  put  in  casket  and 
tombstone  that  which  they  ought  to  put  in  bread. 
They  wanted  bread,  you  give  them  a  tombstone. 

One  would  think  that  the  last  two  obligations  peo- 
ple would  be  particular  about  would  be  to  the  physi- 
cian and  the  undertaker.  Because  they  are  the  two 
last  obligations,  those  two  professions  are  almost  al- 
ways cheated.  They  send  for  the  doctor  in  great 
haste,  and  he  must  come  day  and  night.  They  send 
for  the  undertaker  amid  the  great  solemnities,  and 
often  these  two  men  are  the  very  last  to  be  met  with 
compensation.  Merchants  sell  goods,  and  the  goods 
are  not  paid  for ;  they  take  back  the  goods,  1  am  told. 
But  there  is  no  relief  in  this  case.  The  man  spent  all 
he  had  in  luxuries  and  extravagance  while  he  lived, 
and  then  he  goes  out  of  the  world,  and  has  left  noth- 
ing for  his  family,  nothing  for  the  obsequies,  and  as 
he  goes  out  of  the  world  he  steals  the  doctor's  pills 
and  the  undertaker's  slippers. 

And  then  look  how  the  cause  of  God  is  impover- 
ished. Men  give  so  much  sometimes  tor  their  indul- 


572  WALL   STREET   DEFALCATION. 

gences  they  have  nothing  for  the  cause  of  God  and 
religion.  Twenty-two  million  dollars  expended  in 
this  country  a  year  for  religious  purposes  ;  but  what 
are  the  twenty-two  millions  expended  for  religion 
compared  with  the  ninety-five  millions  expended  on 
cigars  and  tobacco,  and  then  one  thousand,  five  hun- 
dred millions  of  dollars  spent  for  rum,  accursed  rum? 
So  a  man  who  had  a  fortune  of  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars,  or  what  amounted  to  that,  in 
London,  spent  it  all  in  indulgences,  chiefly  in  glut- 
tonies, and  sent  hither  and  yon  for  all  the  delicacies, 
and  often  had  a  meal  that  would  cost  one  or  two 
hundred  dollars  for  himself.  Then  he  was  reduced 
to  one  guinea,  with  which  he  bought  a  rare  bird, 
had  it  cooked  in  best  style,  ate  it,  took  two  hours  for 
digestion,  walked  out  on  Westminster  Bridge,  and 
jumped  into  the  Thames.  On  a  large  scale  what  men 
are  doing  on  a  small  scale. 

Oh,  my  friends,  let  us  take  our  stand  against  the 
extravagances  of  society.  Do  not  pay  for  things 
which  are  frivolous  when  you  may  lack  the  necessi- 
ties. Do  not  put  one  month's  wages  or  salary  into  a 
trinket,  just  one  trinket. 

Keep  your  credit  good  by  seldom  asking  for  any. 
Pay  !  Do  not  starve  a  whole  year  to  afford  one  Bel- 
shazzar's  carnival.  Do  not  buy  a  coat  of  many 
colors,  and  then  in  six  months  be  out  at  the  elbows. 
Flourish  not,  as  some  people  I  have  known,  who  took 
apartments  at  a  fashionable  hotel,  and  had  elegant 
drawing  rooms  attached,  and  then  vanished  in  the 
night,  not  even  leaving  their  compliments  for  the 
landlord.  I  tell  you,  my  friends,  in  the  day  of  God's 
judgment,  we  will  not  only  have  to  give  an  account 
for  the  way  we  made  our  money,  but  for  the  way  we 
spent  it. 


(IT 


PART  IV. 


Cloalg  fiff  the  Wational  Afena, 


®j(sOSR: 

V 


CHAPTER  LVII. 

NATIONAL   RUIN. 

On  cisatlantic  shores  a  company  of  American 
scientists  are  now  landing,  on  their  way  to  find  the 
tomb  of  a  dead  empire  holding  in  its  arms  a  dead 
city,  mother  and  child  of  the  same  name — Babylon. 
The  ancient  mounds  will  invite  the  spades  and 
shovels  and  crowbars,  while  the  unwashed  natives 
look  on  in  surprise.  Our  scientific  friends  will  find 
yellow  bricks  still  impressed  with  the  name  of 
Nebuchadnezzar,  and  they  will  go  down  into  the 
sarcophagus  of  a  monarchy  buried  more  than  two 
thousand  years  ago.  May  the  explorations  of  Raw- 
linson  and  Lavard  and  Chevalier  and  Opperto  and 
Loftus  and  Chesney  be  eclipsed  by  the  present  arch- 
aeological uncovering. 

But  is  it  possible  this  is  all  that  remains  of  Babylon  ? 
a  city  once  five  times  larger  than  London  and  twelve 
times  larger  than  New  York?  Walls  three  hundred 
and  seventy-three  feet  high  and  ninety-three  feet 
thick.  Twenty-five  burnished  gates  on  each  side, 
with  streets  running  clear  through  to  corresponding 
gates  on  the  other  side.  Six  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  squares.  More  pomp  and  wealth  and  splendor 
and  sin  than  could  be  found  in  any  five  modern  cities 
combined.  A  city  of  palaces  and  temples.  A  city 
having  within  it  a  garden  on  an  artificial  hill  four 
hundred  feet  high,  the  sides  of  the  mountain  terraced. 

575 


576  NATIONAL   RUIN. 

All  this  built  to  keep  the  king's  wife,  Amyitis,  from 
becoming  homesick  for  the  mountainous  region  in 
which  she  spent  her  girlhood.  The  waters  of  the 
Euphrates  spouted  up  to  irrigate  this  great  altitude 
into  fruits  and  flowers  and  arborescence  unimagin- 
able. A  great  river  running  from  north  to  south 
clear  through  the  city,  bridges  over  it,  tunnels  under 
it,  boats  on  it. 

A  city  of  bazars  and  of  market-places,  unrivaled  for 
aromatics,  and  unguents,  and  high-mettled  horses 
with  grooms  by  their  side,  and  thyme  wood,  and 
African  evergreens,  and  Egyptian  linen,  and  all 
styles  of  costly  textile  fabric,  and  rarest  purples 
extracted  from  shell-fish  on  the  Mediterranean  coast, 
arid  rarest  scarlets  taken  from  brilliant  insects  in 
Spain,  and  ivories  brought  from  successful  elephan- 
tine hunts  in  India,  and  diamonds  whose  flash  was  a 
repartee  to  the  sun.  Fortress  within  fortress,  embat- 
tlcment  rising  above  embattlement.  Great  capital  of 
the  ages.  But  one  night,  while  honest  citizens  were 
asleep,  but  all  the  saloons  of  saturnalia  were  in  full 
blast,  and  at  the  king's  castle  they  had  filled  the 
tankards  for  the  tenth  time,  and  reeling,  and  guff- 
awing, and  hiccoughing,  around  the  state  table  were 
the  rulers  of  the  land,  General  Cyrus  ordered  his 
besieging  army  to  take  shovels  and  spades,  and  they 
diverted  the  river  from  its  usual  channel  into  another 
direction,  so  that  the  forsaken  bed  of  the  river 
became  the  path  on  which  the  besieging  army  en- 
tered. When  the  morning  dawned  the  conquerors 
were  inside  the  outside  trenches.  Babylon  had 
fallen. 

"Alas,  alas,  that  great  city  Babylon,  that  mighty 
city,  for  in  one  hour  is  thy  judgment  come."  But  do 


NATIONAL   RUIN.  5/7 

nations  die  ?  Oh,  yes,  there  is  great  mortality 
among  monarchies  and  republics.  They  are  like 
individuals  in  the  fact  that  they  are  born,  they  have  a 
middle  life,  they  have  a  decease  :  they  have  a  cradle, 
and  a  grave.  Some  of  them  are  assassinated,  some 
destroyed  by  their  own  hand.  Let  me  call  the  roll  of 
some  of  the  dead  civilizations,  and  some  of  the  dead 
cities,  and  let  some  one  answer  for  them. 

Egyptian  civilization,  stand  up.  "  Dead  !  "  answer 
the  ruins  of  Karnak  and  Luxor,  and  from  seventy 
pyramids  on  the  east  side  of  the  Nile  there  comes  up 
a  great  chorus,  crying  :  "  Dead,  dead  !  "  Assyrian 
Empire,  stand  up  and  answer.  "  Dead  !  "  cry  the 
charred  ruins  of  Nineveh.  After  six  hundred  years 
of  magnificent  opportunity,  dead.  Israelitish  King- 
dom, stand  up.  After  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
of  divine  interposition  and  of  miraculous  vicissitude, 
and  of  heroic  behavior  and  of  appalling  depravity. 
Dead  !  Phoenicia,  stand  up  and  answer.  After  in. 
venting  the  alphabet  and  giving  it  to  the  world,  and 
sending  out  her  merchant  caravans  in  one  direction 
to  Central  Asia,  and  sending  out  her  navigators  to  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  in  another  direction.  Dead  !  Pillars 
of  Hercules  and  rocks  on  which  the  Tyrian  fishermen 
dried  their  nets,  all  answer,  "  Dead  Phoenicia." 
Athens,  after  Phidias,  after  Demosthenes,  after  Mil- 
tiades.  Dead  !  Sparta,  after  Leonidas,  after  Eury- 
biades,  after  Salamis,  after  Thermopylae.  Dead ! 
Roman  Empire,  stand  up  and  answer.  Empire  once 
bounded  by  the  British  Channel  on  the  north,  by  the 
Euphrates  on  the  east,  by  the  great  Sahara  Desert  in 
Africa  on  the  south,  by  the  Atlantic  Ocean  on  the 
west.  Home  of  three  great  civilizations,  owning  alt 
the  then  discovered  world  worth  owning.  Roman 

37 


578  NATIONAL  RUIN. 

Empire,  answer.  Gibbon,  in  his  "  Rise  and  Fall  of 
the  Roman  Empire,"  says  "  Dead !  "  and  the  forsaken 
seats  ot  the  ruined  Coliseum,  and  the  skeleton  of  the 
aqueducts,  and  the  miasma  of  the  Campagna,  and 
the  fragments  of  the  marble  baths,  and  the  useless 
piers  of  the  Bridge  Triumphalis,  and  the  Mamartine 
prison,  holding  no  more  apostolic  prisoners,  and  the 
silent  Forum,  and  Basilica  of  Constantine,  and  the 
arch  of  Titus,  and  the  Pantheon,  come  in  with  great 
chorus,  crying :  "  Dead,  dead  ! "  After  Horace,  after 
Virgil,  after  Tacitus,  after  Cicero,  dead.  After  Hora- 
tius  on  the  bridge,  and  Cincinnatus,  the  farmer 
oligarch,  after  Pompey,  after  Scipio,  after  Cassius, 
after  Constantine,  after  Caesar.  Dead  !  The  war  eagle 
of  Rome  flew  so  high  it  was  blinded  by  the  sun  and 
came  whirling  down  through  the  heavens,  and  the 
owl  of  desolation  and  darkness  built  its  nest  in  the 
forsaken  eyrie.  Mexican  Empire.  Dead  !  French  Em- 
pire. Dead ! 

You  see,  my  friends,  it  is  no  unusual  thing  for  a 
government  to  perish,  and  in  the  same  necrology  of 
dead  nations,  and  in  the  same  graveyard  of  expired 
governments  will  go  the  United  States,  of  America 
unless  there  be  some  potent  voice  to  call  a  halt,  and 
unless  God  in  His  mercy  interfere,  and  through  a 
purified  ballot-box  and  a  widespread  public  Christian 
sentiment  the  catastrophe  be  averted.  I  propose  to 
set  before  you  the  evils  that  threaten  to  destroy  the 
American  Government,  and  to  annihilate  American 
institutions. 

The  first  evil  that  threatens  the  annihilation  of  our 
American  institutions  is  the  fact  that  political  bribery, 
which  once  was  considered  a  crime,  has  by  many 
come  to  be  considered  a  tolerable  virtue. 


NATIONAL   RUIN.  5/9 

There  is  a  legitimate  use  of  money  in  elections,  in 
the  printing  of  political  tracts,  and  in  the  hiring  of 
public  halls,  and  in  the  obtaining  of  campaign  oratory. 
Hundreds  and  thousands  of  men  will  have  set  before 
them  so  much  money  for  a  Republican  vote,  and  so 
much  money  for  a  Democratic  vote,  and  the  superior 
financial  inducement  will  decide  the  action. 

Unless  this  purchase  and  sale  of  suffrage  shall 
cease,  the  American  Government  will  expire,  and 
you  might  as  well  be  getting  ready  the  monument 
for  another  dead  nation.  My  friends,  if  you  have 
not  noticed  that  political  bribery  is  one  of  the  ghastly 
crimes  of  this  day,  you  have  not  kept  your  eyes 
open. 

Another  evil  threatening  the  destruction  of  Amer- 
ican institutions  is  the  solidifying  of  the  sections 
against  each  other.  A  solid  North.  A  solid  South. 
If  this  goes  on  we  shall,  after  a  while,  have  a  solid 
East  against  a  solid  West,  we  shall  have  solid  Middle 
States  against  solid  Northern  States,  we  shall  have  a 
solid  New  York  against  a  solid  Pennsylvania,  and  a 
solid  Ohio  against  a  solid  Kentucky. 

When  Garfield  died,  and  all  the  States  gathered 
around  his  casket  in  sympathy  and  in  tears,  and  as 
hearty  telegrams  of  condolence  came  from  New  Or- 
leans and  from  Charleston  as  from  Boston  and  Chi- 
cago, I  said  to  myself :  "  I  think  sectionalism  is 
dead."  But  alas !  no.  The  difficulty  will  never  be 
ended  until  each  State  of  the  nation  is  split  up  into 
two  or  three  great  political  parties.  This  ^country 
cannot  exist,  unless  it  exists  as  one  body,  the  national 
capital,  the  heart,  sending  out  through  all  the  arteries 
of  communication  warmth  and  life  to  the  very  ex- 
tremities. This  nation  cannot  exist  unless  it  exists  as 


580  NATIONAL  RUIN. 

one  family,  and  you  might  as  well  have  solid  brothers 
against  solid  sisters,  and  a  solid  bread-tray  against  a 
solid  cradle,  and  a  solid  nursery  against  a  solid  dining- 
room  ;  and  you  might  as  well  have  solid  ears  against 
solid  eyes,  and  solid  head  against  solid  foot.  What 
is  the  interest  of  Georgia  is  the  interest  of  Massachu- 
setts ;  what  is  the  interest  of  New  York  is  the  interest 
of  South  Carolina.  Does  the  Ohio  River  change  its 
politics  when  it  gets  below  Louisville  ?  It  is  not 
possible  for  these  sectional  antagonisms  to  continue 
for  a  great  many  years  without  permanent  compound 
fracture. 

Another  evil  threatening  the  destruction  of  our 
American  institutions  is  the  low  state  of  public 
morals. 

What  killed  Babylon?  What  killed  Phoenicia? 
What  killed  Rome?  Their  own  depravity;  and  the 
fraud  and  the  drunkenness  and  the  lechery  which 
have  destroyed  other  nations  will  destroy  ours  unless 
a  merciful  God  prevent. 

I  have  to  tell  you  what  you  know  already,  that 
American  politics  have  sunken  to  such  a  low  depth 
that  there  is  nothing  beneath.  What  we  see  in  some 
directions  we  see  in  nearly  all  directions.  The  pecu- 
lation and  the  knavery  hurled  to  the  surface  by  the 
explosion  of  banks  and  business  firms  are  only  speci- 
mens of  great  Cotopaxis  and  Strombolis  of  wicked- 
ness that  boil  and  roar  and  surge  beneath,  but  have 
not  yet  regurgitated  to  the  surface.  When  the 
heaven-descended  Democratic  party  enacted  the 
Tweed  rascality  it  seemed  to  eclipse  everything;  but 
after  awhile  the  heaven-descended  Republican  party 
outwitted  Pandemonium  with  the  Star  Route  infamy. 

My  friends,  we  have  in  this  country,  people  who 


NATIONAL   RUIN.  581 

say  the  marriage  institution  amounts  to  nothing. 
They  scoff  at  it.  We  have  people  walking  in  polite 
parlors  in  our  day  who  are  not  good  enough  to  be 
scavengers  in  Sodom !  I  went  over  to  San  Francisco 
four  or  five  years  ago  —  that  beautiful  city,  that 
Queen  of  the  Pacific.  May  the  blessing  of  God 
come  down  upon  her  great  churches,  and  her  noble 
men  and  women !  When  I  got  into  the  city  of  San 
Francisco,  the  mayor  of  the  city,  and  the  president  of 
the  Board  of  Health  called  on  me  and  insisted  that  I 
go  and  see  the  Chinese  quarters,  no  doubt,  so  that  on 
my  return  to  the  Atlantic  coast  I  might  tell  what 
dreadful  people  the  Chinese  are.  But  on  the  last 
night  of  my  stay  in  San  Francisco,  before  thousands 
of  people  in  their  great  opera  house,  I  said  :  "Would 
you  like  me  to  tell  you  just  what  I  think,  plainly  and 
honestly?"  They  said;  "Yes,  yes,  yes!"  I  said: 
"Do  you  think  you  can  stand  it  all  ?"  They  said : 
."Yes,  yes,  yes!"  "Then,"  I  said,  "my  opinion  is  that 
the  curse  of  San  Francisco  is  not  your  Chinese  quar- 
ters, but  your  millionaire  libertines!" 

And  two  of  them  sat  right  before  me — Felix  and 
Drusilla.  And  so  it  is  in  all  the  cities.  I  never  swear, 
but  when  I  see  a  man  go  unwhipt  of  justice,  laughing 
over  his  shame,  and  calling  his  damnable  deeds  gal- 
lantry and  peccadillo,  I  am  tempted  to  hurl  red-hot 
anathema,  and  to  conclude  that  if,  according  to  some 
people's  theology,  there  is  no  hell,  there  ought  to  be ! 

There  is  enough  out-and-out  licentiousness  in  Amer- 
ican cities  to-day  to.  bring  down  upon  them  the  wrath 
of  that  God  who,  on  the  24th  of  August,  79,  buried 
Herculaneum  and  Pompeii  so  deep  in  ashes  that  the 
eighteen  hundred  and  five  subsequent  years  have  not 
been  able  to  complete  the  exhumation.  There  are  in 


582  NATIONAL   RUIN. 

American  cities  to-dav  whole  blocks  of  houses  which 

J 

the  police  know  to  be  infamous,  and  yet  by  purchase 
they  are  silenced,  bv  hush  money,  so  that  such  places 
are  as  much  under  the  defence  of  government  as 
public  libraries  and  asylums  of  mercy.  These  ulcers 
on  the  body  politic  bleed  and  gangrene  away  the  life 
of  the  nation,  and  public  authority  in  many  of  the 
cities  looks  the  other  way.  You  can  not  cure  such 
wounds  as  these  with  a  silken  bandage.  You  will 
have  to  cure  them  by  putting  deep  in  the  lancet  of 
moral  surgery  and  burning  them  out  with  the  caustic 
of  holy  wrath,  and  vvith  most  decisive  amputation 
cutting  off  the  scabrous  and  putrefying  abominations. 
As  the  Romans  were  after  the  Celts,  and  as  the  Nor- 
mans were  after  the  Britons,  so  there  are  evils  after 
this  nation  which  will  attend  its  obsequies  unless  we 
first  attend  theirs. 

Superstition  tells  of  a  marine  reptile,  the  cepha- 
loptera,  which  enfolded  and  crushed  a  ship  of  war ; 
but  it  is  no  superstition  when  I  tell  you  that  the  his- 
tory of  many  of  the  dead  nations  proclaim  to  us  the 
fact  that  our  ship  of  state  is  in  danger  of  being 
crushed  by  the  cephaloptera  of  national  depravity. 
Where  is  the  Hercules  to  slay  this  hydra?  Is  it  not 
time  to  speak  by  pen,  by  tongue,  by  ballot-box,  by 
the  rolling  of  the  prison  door,  by  hangman's  halter, 
by  earnest  prayer,  by  Sinaitic  detonation  ? 

A  son  of  King  Cresus  is  said  to  have  been  dumb, 
and  to  have,  never  uttered  a  word  until  he  saw 
his  father  being  put  to  death.  Then  he  broke  the 
shackles  of  silence,  and  cried  out :  "  Kill  not  my 
father,  Cresus !  "  When  I  see  the  cheatery  and  the 
wantonness  and  the  manifold  crime  of  this  country 
attempting  to  commit  patricide — yea,  matricide  upon 


NATIONAL   RUIN.  583 

our  institutions,  it  seems  to  me  that  lips  that  hereto- 
fore have  been  dumb  ought  to  break  the  silence  with 
canerous  tones  of  fiery  protest. 

I  shall  go  on  until  I  have  shown  you  the  way  in 
which  we  may  save  the  life  of  the  nation. 

I  want  to  put  all  the  matter  before  you,  so  that 
every  honest  man  and  woman  will  know  just  how 
matters  stand,  and  what  they  ought  to  do  if  they 
vote,  and  what  they  ought  to  do  if  they  pray.  This 
Nation  is  not  going  to  perish.  Alexander,  when  he 
heard  of  the  wealth  of  the  Indies,  divided  Macedonia 
among  his  soldiers.  Some  one  asked  him  what  he  had 
kept  for  himself,  and  he  replied :  "  I  am  keeping 
hope.  And  that  jewel  I  keep  bright  and  shining  in 
my  soul,  whatever  else  I  shall  surrender."  Hope, 
then,  in  God.  He  will  set  back  these  oceanic  tides 
of  moral  devastation.  Do  you  know  what  is  the 
prize  for  which  contention  is  made  to-day?  It  is  the 
prize  of  this  continent.  Never  since,  according  to 
John  Milton,  when  "  Satan  was  hurled  headlong 
flaming  from  the  ethereal  skies  in  hideous  ruin  and 
combustion  down,"  have  the  powers  of  darkness  been 
so  determined  to  win  this  continent  as  they  are  now. 

What  a  jewel  it  is — a  jewel  carved  in  relief,  the 
cameo  of  this  planet !  On  one  side  of  us  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  dividing  us  from  the  worn-out  governments 
of  Europe.  On  the  other  side  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
dividing  us  from  the  superstitions  of  Asia.  On  the 
north  of  us  the  Arctic  Sea,  which  is  the  gymnasium 
in  which  the  explorers  and  navigators  develop  their 
courage.  A  continent  10,500  miles  long,  17,000,000 
square  miles,  and  all  of  it  but  about  one-seventh  capa- 
ble of  rich  cultivation.  One  hundred  millions  of  popu- 
lation on  this  continent  of  North  and  South  America 


584  NATIONAL    RUIN. 

— one  hundred  millions,  and  room  for  many  hundred 
millions  more.  All  flora  and  all  fauna,  all  metals  and 
all  precious  woods,  and  all  grains  and  all  fruits.  The 
Appalachian  range  the  backbone  and  the  rivers  of 
the  ganglia  carrying  life  all  through  and  out  to  the 
extremities.  Isthmus  of  Darien  the  narrow  waist  of 
a  giant  continent,  all  to  be  under  one  government, 
and  all  free  and  all  Christian,  and  the  scene  of  Christ's 
personal  reign  on  earth  if,  according  to  the  expecta- 
tion of  many  good  people,  He  shall  at  last  set  up  His 
throne  in  this  world. 

Who  shall  have  this  hemisphere?  Christ  or  Satan? 
Who  shall  have  the  shore  of  her  inland  seas,  the  silver 
of  her  Nevadas,  the  gold  of  her  Colorados,  the  teles- 
copes of  her  observatories,  the  brain  of  her  univer- 
sities, the  wheat  of  her  prairies,  the  rice  of  her 
savannas,  the  two  great  ocean  beaches — the  one 
reaching  from  Baffin's  Bay  to  Terra  del  Fuego,  and 
the  other  from  Behring  Straits  to  Cape  Horn — and 
all  the  moral,  and  temporal,  and  spiritual,  and  ever- 
lasting interests  of  a  population  vast  beyond  all  com- 
putation save  by  Him,  with  whom  a  thousand  years 
areas  one  day?  Who  shall  have  the  hemisphere? 
You  and  I  will  decide  that  or  help  to  decide  it,  by 
conscientious  vote,  by  earnest  prayer,  by  maintenance 
of  Christian  institutions,  by  support  of  great  philan- 
thropies, by  putting  body,  mind,  and  soul  on  the 
right  side  of  all  moral,  religious,  and  national  move- 
ments. 


THE  RETURN  FROM  THE  CHRISTENING. 
[After  I...  Kaenunerer.] 


CHAPTER  LVIII. 

EASY   DIVORCE. 

That  there  are  hundreds  and  thousands  of  infeli- 
citous homes  in  America,  no  one  will  doubt.  If  there 
were  only  one  skeleton  in  the  closet,  that  might  be 
locked  up  and  abandoned  ;  but  in  many  a  home  there 
is  a  skeleton  in  the  hallway  and  a  skeleton  in  all  the 
apartments. 

"  Unhappily  married  "  are  two  words  descriptive 
of  many  a  homestead.  It  needs  no  orthodox  minister 
to  prove  to  a  badly  mated  pair  that  there  is  a  hell ; 
they  are  there  now. 

Some  say  that  for  the  alleviation  of  all  these  do- 
mestic disorders  of  which  we  hear,  easy  divorce  is  a 
good  prescription.  God  sometimes  authorizes  di- 
vorce as  certainly  as  He  authorizes  marriage.  I  have 
just  as  much  regard  for  one  lawfully  divorced  as  I 
have  for  one  lawfully  married.  But  you  know,  and 
I  know,  that  wholesale  divorce  is  one  of  our  national 
scourges.  I  am  not  surprised  at  this  when  I  think  of 
the  influences  which  have  been  abroad  militating 
against  the  marriage  relation. 

For  many  years  the  platforms  of  the  country  rang 
with  talk  about  a  free-love  millennium.  There  were 
meetings  of  this  kind  held  in  the  Academy  of  Music, 
Brooklyn ;  Cooper  Institute,  New  York ;  Tremont 
Temple,  Boston,  and  all  over  the  land.  Some  of  the 
women  who  were  most  prominent  in  that  movement 

587 


588  EASY    DIVORCE. 

have  since  been  distinguished  for  great  promiscuosity 
of  affection.  Popular  themes  for  such  occasions  were 
the  tyranny  of  man,  the  oppression  of  the  marriage 
relation,  women's  rights,  and  the  affinities.  Promi- 
nent speakers  were  women  with  short  curls,  and 
short  dress,  and  very  long  tongue,  everlastingly  at 
war  with  God  because  they  were  created  women ; 
while  on  the  platform  sat  meek  men  with  soft  accent, 
and  cowed  demeanor,  apologetic  for  masculinity,  and 
holding  the  parasols  while  the  termagant  orators 
went  on  preaching  the  gospel  of  free-love. 

That  campaign  of  about  twenty  years  set  more 
devils  into  the  marriage  relation  than  will  be  exor- 
cised in  the  next  fifty.  Men  and  women  went  home 
from  such  meetings  so  permanently  confused  as  to 
who  were  their  wives  and  husbands,  that  they  never 
got  out  of  their  perplexity,  and  the  criminal  and  the 
civil  courts  tried  to  disentangle  the  Iliad  of  woes, 
and  this  one  got  alimony,  and  that  one  got  a  limited 
divorce,  and  this  mother  kept  the  children  on  con- 
dition that  the  father  could  sometimes  come  and 
look  at  them,  and  these  went  into  the  poorhouses, 
and  those  went  into  an  insane  asylum,  and  those 
went  into  dissolute  public  life,  and  all  \Vent  to  de- 
struction. The  mightiest  war  ever  made  against  the 
marriage  institution  was  that  free-love  campaign, 
sometimes  under  one  name,  and  sometimes  under 
another. 

Another  influence  that  has  warred  upon  the  mar- 
riage relation  has  been  polygamy  in  Utah.  That  is 
a  stereotyped  caricature  of  the  marriage  relation, 
and  has  poisoned  the  whole  land.  You  might  as 
well  think  that  you  can  have  an  arm  in  a  state  of 
mortification  and  yet  the  whole  body  not  be  sickened, 


EASY   DIVORCE.  589 

as  to  have  those  Territories  polygamized  and  yet  the 
body  of  the  nation  not  feel  the  putrefaction.  Hear 
it,  good  men  and  women  of  America,  that  so  long 
ago  as  1862  a  law  was  passed  by  Congress  forbid- 
ding polygamy  in  the  Territories  and  in  all  the  places 
where  they  had  jurisdiction.  Armed  with  all  the 
power  of  government,  and  having  an  army  at  their 
disposal,  and  yet  the  first  brick  has  not  been  knocked 
from  that  fortress  of  libertinism. 

Every  new  President  in  his  inaugural  has  tickled 
that  monster  with  the  straw  of  condemnation,  and 
every  Congress  has  stultified  itself  in  proposing  some 
plan  that  would  riot  work.  Polygamy  stands  in 
Utah  and  in  other  of  the  Territories  to-day  more 
entrenched,  and  more  brazen,  and  more  puissant,  and 
•  more  braggart,  and  more  infernal,  than  at  any  time 
in  its  history.  James  Buchanan,  a  much-abused  man 
of  his  day,  did  more  for  the  extirpation  of  this  vil- 
lany  than  all  the  subsequent  administrations  have 
dared  to  do.  Mr.  Buchanan  sent  out  an  army,  and 
although  it  was  halted  in  its  work,  still  he  accom- 
plished more  than  the  subsequent  administrations, 
which  have  done  nothing  but  talk,  talk,  talk. 

I  want  the  people  of  America  to  know  that  for 
twenty-two  years  we  have  had  a  positive  law  pro- 
hibiting polygamy  in  the  Territories.  People  are  cry- 
ing out  for  some  new  law,  as  though  we  had  not  an 
old  law  already  with  which  that  infamy  could  be 
swept  into  the  perdition  from  which  it  smoked  up. 
Polygamy  in  Utah  has  warred  against  the  marriage 
relation  throughout  the  land.  It  is  impossible  to 
have  such  an  awful  sewer  of  iniquity  sending  up  its 
miasma,  which  is  wafted  by  the  winds  north,  south, 
east  and  west,  without  the  whole  land  being  affected 
by  it. 


590  EASY   DIVORCE. 

Another  influence  that  has  warred  against  the 
marriage  relation  in  this  country  has  been  a  pustu- 
lous literature,  with  its  millions  of  sheets  every  week 
choked  with  stories  of  domestic  wrongs,  and  infidel- 
ities, and  massacres,  and  outrages,  until  it  is  a  wonder 
to  me  that  there  are  any  decencies  or  any  common 
sense  left  on  the  subject  of  marriage.  One-half  of 
the  news-stands  of  Brooklyn  and  New  York  and  all 
our  cities  reeking  with  the  filth. 

"  Now,"  say  some,  "  we  admit  all  these  evils,  and 
the  only  way  to  clear  them  out  or  correct  them  is  by 
easy  divorce."  Well,  before  we  yield  to  that  cry,  let 
us  find  out  how  easy  it  is  now. 

I  have  looked  over  the  laws  of  all  the  States,  and 
I  find  that  while  in  some  States  it  is  easier  than  in 
others,  in  everv  State  it  is  easy.  The  State  of  Illinois 
through  its  Legislature  recites  a  long  list  of  proper 
causes  for  divorce,  and  then  closes  up  by  giving  to 
the  courts  the  right  to  make  a  decree  of  divorce  in 
any  case  where  they  deem  it  expedient.  After  that 
you  are  not  surprised  at  the  announcement  that  in 
one  county  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  in  one  year,  there 
were  833  divorces.  If  you  want  to  know  how  easy 
it  is  you  have  only  to  look  over  the  records  of  the 
States.  In  Massachusetts  600  divorces  in  one  year ; 
in  Maine  478  in  one  year  ;  in  Connecticut  401  divorces 
in  one  year;  in  the  city  of  San  Francisco  333 
divorces  in  1880;  in  New  England  in  one  year  2113 
divorces,  and  in  twenty  years  in  New  England 
twenty  thousand.  Is  that  not  easy  enough  ? 

I  want  you  to  notice  that  frequency  of  divorce  al- 
ways goes  along  with  the  dissoluteness  of  society. 
Rome  for  five  hundred  years  had  not  one  case  of 
divorce.  Those  were  her  days  of  glory  and  virtue. 


EASY   DIVORCE.  591 

Then  the  reign  of  vice  began,  and  divorce  became 
epidemic.  If  you  want  to  know  how  rapidly  the 
Empire  went  down,  ask  Gibbon.  Do  you  know  how 
the  Reign  of  Terror  was  introduced  in  France  ?  By 
20,000  cases  of  divorce  in  one  year  in  Paris.  What 
we  want  in  this  country,  and  in  all  lands,  is  that  di- 
vorce be  made  more,  and  more,  and  more  difficult. 
Then  people  before  they  enter  that  relation  will  be 
persuaded  that  there  will  probably  be  no  escape  from 
it,  except  through  the  door  of  the  sepulchre.  Then 
they  will  pause  on  the  verge  of  that  relation,  until 
they  are  fully  satisfied  that  it  is  best,  and  that  it  is 
right,  and  that  it  is  happiest.  Then  we  shall  have  no 
more  marriage  in  fun.  Then  men  and  women  will 
not  enter  the  relation  with  the  idea  it  is  only  a  trial 
trip,  and  if  they  do  not  like  it  they  can  get  out  at  the 
first  landing.  Then  this  whole  question  will  be  taken 
out  of  the  frivolous  into  the  tremendous,  and  there 
will  be  no  more  joking  about  the  blossoms  in  a  bride's 
hair  than  about  the  cypress  on  a  coffin. 

What  we  want  is  that  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  move  for  the  changing  the  national  Constitu- 
tion so  that  a  law  can  be  passed  which  shall  be  uni- 
form all  over  the  country,  and  what  shall  be  right  in 
one  State  shall  be  right  in  all  the  States,  and  what  is 
wrong  in  one  State  will  be  wrong  in  all  the  States. 

How  is  it  now  ?  If  a  party  in  the  marriage  rela- 
tion gets  dissatisfied,  it  is  only  necessary  to  move  to 
another  State  to  achieve  liberation  from  the  domestic 
tie,  and  divorce  is  effected  so  easy  that  the  first  one 
party  knows  of  it  is  by  seeing  it  in  the  newspaper 
that  Rev.  Dr.  Somebody  on  April-  14,  1884,  intro- 
duced into  a  new  marriage  relation  a  member  of  the 
household  who  went  off  on  a  pleasure  excursion  to 


592  EASY   DIVORCE. 

Newport,  or  a  business  excursion  to  Chicago.  Mar- 
ried at  the  bride's  house.  No  cards.  There  are 
States  of  the  Union  which  practically  put  a  premium 
upon  the  disintegration  of  the  marriage  relation, 
while  there  are  other  States,  like  our  own  New  York 
State,  that  has  the  pre-eminent  idiocy  of  making 
marriage  lawful  at  twelve  and  fourteen  years  of  age. 

The  Congress  of  the  United  States  needs  to  move 
for  a  change  of  the  national  Constitution,  and  then  to 
appoint  a  committee— not  made  up  of  single  gentle- 
men, but  of  men  of  families,  and  their  families  in 
Washington — \vho  shall  prepare  a  good,  honest, 
righteous,  comprehensive,  uniform  law  that  will  con- 
trol everything  from  Sandy  Hook  to  Golden  Horn. 
That  will  put  an  end  to  brokerages  in  marriage. 
That  will  send  divorce  lawyers  into  a  decent  busi- 
ness. That  will  set  people  agitated  for  many  years 
on  the  question  of  how  shall  they  get  away  from 
each  other,  to  planning  how  they  can  adjust  them- 
selves to  the  more  or  less  unfavorable  circumstances. 

More  difficult  divorce  will  put  an  estoppal  to  a 
great  extent  upon  marriage  as  a  financial  speculation. 
There  are  men  who  go  into  the  relation  just  as  they 
go  into  Wall  Street  to  purchase  shares.  The  female 
to  be  invited  into  the  partnership  of  wedlock  is 
utterly  unattractive,  and  in  disposition  a  suppressed 
Vesuvius.  Everybody  knows  it,  but  this  masculine 
candidate  for  matrimonial  orders,  through  the  com- 
mercial agency  or  through  the  county  records,  finds 
out  how  much  estate  is  to  be  inherited,  and  he  calcu- 
lates it.  He  thinks  out  how  long  it  will  be  before 
the  old  man  will  die,  and  whether  he  can  stand  the 
refractory  temper  until  he  does  die,  and  then  he 
enters  the  relation  ;  for  he  says,  "  If  I  cannot  stand  it, 


EASY   DIVORCE.  593 

then  through  the  divorce  law  I'll  back  out."  That 
process  is  going  on  all  the  time,  and  men  enter  the 
relation  without  any  moral  principle,  without  any 
affection,  and  it  is  as  much  a  matter  of  stock  specu- 
lation as  anything  that  transpired  yesterday  in  Union 
Pacific,  Wabash  and  Delaware  and  Lackawanna. 

Now,  suppose  a  man  understood,  as  he  ought  to 
understand,  that  if  he  goes  into  that  relation  there  is 
no  possibility  of  his  getting  out,  or  no  probability, 
he  would  be  more  slow  to  put  his  neck  in  the  yoke. 
He  should  say  to  himself,  "Rather  than  a  Caribbean 
whirlwind  with  a  whole  fleet  of  shipping  in  its  arms, 
give  me  a  zephyr  off  fields  of  sunshine  and  gardens 
of  peace." 

Rigorous  divorce  law  will  also  hinder  women 
from  the  fatal  mistake  of  marrying  men  to  reform 
them.  If  a  young  man  by  twenty-five  years  of  age, 
or  thirty  years  of  age  have  the  habit  of  strong  drink 
fixed  on  him,  he  is  as  certainly  bound  for  a  drunk- 
ard's grave  as  that  train  starting  out  from  Grand 
Central  Depot  at  8  o'clock  to-morrow  morning  is 
bound  for  Albany.  The  train  may  not  reach  Albany, 
for  it  may  be  thrown  from  the  track.  The  young 
man  may  not  reach  a  drunkard's  grave,  for  some- 
thing may  throw  him  off  the  iron  track  of  evil  habit; 
but  the  probability  is  that  the  train  that  starts  to- 
morrow morning  at  8  o'clock  for  Albany  will  get 
there,  and  the  probability  is  that  the  young  man  who 
has  the  habit  of  strong  drink  fixed  on  him  before 
twenty-five  or  thirty  years  of  age  will  arrive  at  a 
drunkard's  grave.  She  knows  he  drinks,  although 
he  tries  to  hide  it  by  chewing  cloves.  Everybody 
knows  he  drinks.  Parents  warn,  neighbors  and 
friends  warn.  She  will  marry  him,  she  will  reform 
him. 


594  EASY  DIVORCE. 

If  she  is  unsuccessful  in  the  experiment,  why  then 
the  divorce  law  will  emancipate  her,  because  habitual 
drunkenness  is  a  cause  for  divorce  in  Indiana,  Ken- 
tucky, Florida,  Connecticut,  and  nearly  all  the  States. 
So  the  poor  thing  goes  to  the  altar  of  sacrifice.  If 
you  will  show  me  the  poverty-struck  streets  in  any 
city,  I  will  show  you  the  homes  of  the  women  who 
married  men  to  reform  them.  In  one  case  out  of  ten 
thousand  it  may  be  a  successful  experiment.  I  never 
saw  the  successful  experiment.  But  have  a  rigorous 
divorce  law,  and  that  woman  will  say,  "  If  I  am  affi- 
anced to  that  man,  it  is  for  life ;  and  if  now  in  the 
ardor  of  his  young  love,  and  I  am  the  prize  to  be 
won,  he  will  not  give  up  his  cups,  when  he  has  won 
the  prize,  surely  he  will  not  give  up  his  cups."  And 
so  that  woman  will  say  to  the  man, "  No,  sir,  you  are 
already  married  to  the  club,  and  you  are  married  to 
that  evil  habit,  and  so  you  are  married  twice,  and 
you  are  a  bigamist.  Go !  " 

A  rigorous  divorce  law  will  also  do  much  to  hinder 
hasty  and  inconsiderate  marriages.  Under  the  im- 
pression that  one  can  be  easily  released  people  enter 
the  relation  without  inquiry,  and  without  reflection. 
Romance  and  impulse  rule  the  day.  Perhaps  the 
only  ground  for  the  marriage  compact  is  that  she 
likes  his  looks,  and  he  admires  the  graceful  way  she 
passes  around  the  ice-cream  at  the  picnic  !  It  is  all 
they  know  about  each  other.  It  is  all  the  preparation 
for  life.  A  man,  not  able  to  pay  his  own  board  bill, 
with  not  a  dollar  in  his  possession,  will  stand  at  the 
altar  and  take  the  loving  hand,  and  say,  "  With  all 
my  worldly  goods  I  thee  endow !"  A  woman  that 
could  not  make  a  loaf  of  bread  to  save  her  life,  will 
swear  to  cherish  and  obey.  A  Christian  will  marry 


EASY   DIVORCE.  595 

an  atheist,  and  that  always  makes  conjoined  wretch- 
edness ;  for  if  a  man  does  not  believe  there  is  a  God 
he  is  neither  to  be  trusted  with  a  dollar,  nor  with 
your  life-long  happiness. 

Having  read  much  about  love  in  a  cottage  people 
brought  up  in  ease  will  go  and  starve  in  a  hovel. 
Runaway  matches  and  elopements,  999  out  of  1000 
of  which  mean  death  and  hell,  multiplying  on  all 
hands.  You  see  them  in  every  day's  newspapers. 
Our  ministers  in  this  region  have  no  defence  such  as 
they  have  in  other  cities  where  the  banns  must  be 
previously  published  and  an  officer  of  the  law  must 
give  a  certificate  that  all  is  right ;  so  clergymen  are 
left  defenceless,  and  unite  those  who  ought  never  to  be 
united.  Perhaps  they  are  too  young  or  perhaps  they 
are  standing  already  in  some  domestic  compact. 

By  the  wreck  of  ten  thousand  homes,  by  the 
holocaust  of  ten  thousand  sacrificed  men  and  women, 
by  the  hearthstone  of  the  family  which  is  the  corner- 
stone of  the  State,  and  in  the  name  of  that  God  who 
hath  set  up  the  family  institution  and  who  hath  made 
the  breaking  of  the  marital  oath  the  most  appalling 
of  all  perjuries,  I  implore  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  to  make  some  righteous,  uniform  law  ior  all 
the  States,  and  from  ocean  to  ocean,  on  this  subject 
of  marriage  and  divorce. 

And,  fellow-citizens,  as  well  as  fellow-Christians,  let 
us  have  a  divine  rage  against  anything  that  wars  on 
the  marriage  state.  Blessed  institution  !  Instead  of 
two  arms  to  fight  the  battle  of  life,  four.  Instead  of 
two  eyes  to  scrutinize  the  path  of  life,  four.  Instead 
of  two  shoulders  to  lift  the  burden  of  life,  four. 
Twice  the  energy,  twice  the  courage,  twice  the  holy 
ambition,  twice  the  probability  of  worldly  success, 


596  EASY  DIVORCE. 

twice  the  prospects  of  heaven.  Into  that  matrimonial 
bower  God  fetches  two  souls.  Outside  the  bower 
room  for  all  contentions,  and  all  bickerings,  and  all 
controversies,  but  inside  that  bower  there  is  room  for 
only  one  guest — the  angel  of  love.  Let  that  angel 
stand  at  the  floral  doorw/iy  of  this  Edenic  bower 
with  drawn  sword  to  hew  down-  the  worst  foe  of  that 
bower — easy  divorce.  And  for  every  Paradise  lost 
may  there  be  a  Paradise  regained.  And  after  we 
quit  our  home  here  may  we  have  a  brighter  home  in 
heaven,  at  the  windows  of  which  this  moment  are 
familiar  faces  watching  for  our  arrival,  and  won- 
dering why  so  long  we  tarry. 


POVERTY. 


CHAPTER  LIX. 

THE   ARCH-FIEND   OF   THE   NATIONS. 

Noah  did  the  best  and  the  worst  thing  for  the 
world.  He  built  an  ark  against  the  deluge  of  water, 
but  introduced  a  deluge  against  which  the  human 
race  has  ever  since  been  trying  to  build  an  ark — the 
deluge  of  drunkenness.  In  the  opening  chapters  of 
the  Bible  we  hear  his  staggering  steps.  Shem  and 
Japhet  tried  to  cover  up  the  disgrace,  but  there  he  is, 
drunk  on  wine  at  a  time  in  the  history  of  the  world 
when,  to  say  the  least,  there  was  no  lack  of  water. 

Inebriation  having  entered  the  world,  has  not  re- 
treated. Abigail,  the  fair  and  heroic  wife  who  saved 
the  flocks  of  Nabal,  her  husband,  from  confiscation 
by  invaders,  goes  home  at  night  and  finds  him  so  in- 
toxicated she  can  not  tell  him  the  story  of  his  narrow 
escape.  Uriah  came  to  see  David,  and  David  got 
him  drunk,  and  paved  the  way  for  the  despoliation  of 
a  household.  Even  the  church  bishops  needed  to  be 
charged  to  be  sober  and  not  given  to  too  much  wine  ; 
and  so  familiar  were  the  people  of  Bible  times  with 
the  staggering  and  falling  motion  of  the  inebriate, 
that  Isaiah,  when  he  comes  to  describe  the  final  dis- 
location of  worlds,  says :  "  The  earth  shall  reel  to  and 
fro  like  a  drunkard." 

Ever  since  apples  and  grapes  and  wheat  grew  the 
world  has  been  tempted  to  unhealthful  stimulants. 
But  the  intoxicants  of  the  olden  time  were  an  inno- 

599 


600  THE   ARCH-FIEND   OF.  THE   NATIONS. 

cent  beverage,  a  harmless  orangeade,  a  quiet  syrup, 
a  peaceful  soda  water,  as  compared  with  the  liquids 
of  modern  inebriation,  into  which  a  madness,  and  a 
fury,  and  a  gloom,  and  a  fire,  and  a  suicide,  and  a 
retribution  have  mixed  and  mingled.  Fermentation 
was  always  known,  but  it  was  not  until  a  thousand 
years  after  Christ  that  distillation  was  invented. 

While  we  must  confess  that  some  of  the  ancient 
arts  have  been  lost,  the  Christian  era  is  superior  to 
all  others  in  the  bad  eminence  of  whisky  and  rum  and 
gin.  The  modern  drunk  is  a  hundred-fold  worse  than 
the  ancient  drunk.  Noah  in  his  intoxication  became 
imbecile,  but  the  victims  of  modern  alcoholism  have 
to  struggle  with  whole  menageries  of  wild  beasts  and 
jungles  of  hissing  serpents  and  perditions  of  blas- 
pheming demons.  An  arch-fiend  arrived  in  our 
world,  and  he  built  an  invisible  cauldron  of  tempta- 
tion. He  built  that  cauldron  strong  and  stout  for  all 
ages  and  all  nations.  First  he  squeezed  into  the  caul- 
dron the  juices  of  the  forbidden  fruit  of  Paradise. 
Then  he  gathered  for  it  a  distillation  from  the  har- 
vest fields  and  the  orchards  .of  the  hemispheres. 
Then  he  poured  into  this  cauldron  capsicum,  and 
copperas,  and  logwood,  and  deadly  nightshade,  and 
assault  and  battery,  and  vitriol,  and  opium,  and  rum, 
and  murder,  and  sulphuric  acid,  and  theft,  and  pot- 
ash, and  cochineal,  and  red  carrots,  and  poverty,  and 
death,  and  hops.  But  it  was  a  dry  compound,  and  it 
must  be  moistened,  and  it  must  be  liquefied,  and  so 
the  arch-fiend  poured  into  that  cauldron  the  tears  of 
centuries  of  orphanage  and  widowhood,  and  he 
poured  in  the  blood  of  twenty  thousand  assassina- 
tions. And  then  the  arch-fiend  took  a  shovel  that  he 
had  brought  up  from  the  furnaces  beneath,  and  he 


THE   ARCH-FIEND   OF   THE   NATIONS.  6oi 

put  that  shovel  into  this  great  cauldron  and  begin 
to  stir,  and  the  cauldron  began  to  heave,  and  rock, 
and  boil,  and  sputter,  and  hiss,  and  smoke,  and  the 
nations  gathered  around  it  with  cups  and  tankards 
and  demijohns  and  kegs,  and  there  was  enough  for 
all,  and  the  arch-fiend  cried :  "  Aha  !  champion  fiend 
am  I.  Who  has  done  more  than  I  have  for  coffins 
and  graveyards  and  prisons  and  insane  asylums,  and 
the  populating  of  the  lost  world  ?  And  when  this 
cauldron  is  emptied,  I'll  fill  it  again,  and  I'll  stir  it 
again,  and  it  will  smoke  again,  and  that  smoke  will 
join  another  smoke — the  smoke  of  a  torment  that 
ascendeth  forever  and  ever. 

"  I  drove  fifty  ships  on  the  rocks  of  Newfoundland 
and  the  Skerries  and  the  Goodwins.  I  defeated  the 
Northern  army  at  Fredericksburg.  I  have  ruined 
more  senators  than  will  gather  next  winter  in  the 
national  councils.  I  have  ruined  more  lords  than 
will  be  gathered  in  the  House  of  Peers.  The  cup 
out  of  which  I  ordinarily  drink  is  a  bleached  human 
skull,  and  the  upholstery  of  my  palace  is  so  rich  a 
crimson  because  it  is  dyed  in  human  gore,  and  the 
mosaic  of  my  floors  is  made  up  of  the  bones  of  chil- 
dren dashed  to  death  by  drunken  parents,  and  my 
favorite  music— sweeter  than  Te  Deum  or  triumphal 
march — my  favorite  music  is  the  cry  of  daughters 
turned  out  at  midnight  on  the  street  because  father 
has  come  home  from  the  carousal,  and  the  seven- 
hundred-voiced  shriek  of  the  sinking  steamer  because 
the  captain  was  not  himself  when  he  put  the  ship  on 
the  wrong  course.  Champion  fiend  am  I !  I  have 
kindled  more  fires,  I  have  wrung  out  more  agonies, 
I  have  stretched  out  more  midnight  shadows,  I  have 
opened  more  Golgothas,  I  have  rolled  more  jugger- 


602  THE   ARCH-FIEND   OF  THE   NATIONS. 

nauts,  I  have  damned  more  souls  than  any  other 
emissary  of  diabolism.  Champion  fiend  am  I  !  " 

Drunkenness  is  the  greatest  evil  of  this  nation,  and 
it  takes  no  logical  process  to  prove  that  a  drunken 
nation  cannot  long  be  a  free  nation.  I  call  your  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  drunkenness  is  not  subsiding, 
certainly  that  it  is  not  at  a  standstill,  but  that  it  is  on 
an  onward  march,  and  it  is  a  double  quick.  Where 
there  was  one  drunken  home  there  are  ten  drunken 
homes.  Where  there  was  one  drunkard's  grave  there 
are  twenty  drunkards'  graves. 

According  to  United  States  Government  figures, 
in  1840  there  were  23,000,000  gallons  of  beer  sold. 
Last  year  there  were  551,000,000  gallons.  Accord- 
ing to  the  governmental  figures,  in  the  year  1840  there 
were  5,000,000  gallons  of  wine  sold.  Last  year  there 
were  25,000,000  gallons  of  wine.  It  is  on  the  increase. 
Talk  about  crooked  whisky — by  which  men  mean 
the  whisky  that  does  not  pay  the  tax  to  government 
—I  tell  you  all  strong  drink  is  crooked.  Crooked 
otard,  crooked  cognac,  crooked  schnapps,  crooked 
beer,  crooked  wine,  crooked  whisky,  because  it 
makes  a  man's  path  crooked,  and  his  life  crooked,  and 
his  death  crooked,  and  his  eternity  crooked. 

If  I  could  gather  all  the  armies  of  the  dead  drunk- 
ards and  have  them  come  to  resurrection,  and  then 
add  to  that  host  all  the  armies  of  living  drunkards, 
five  and  ten  abreast,  and  then  if  I  could  have  you 
mount  a  horse  and  ride  along  that  line  for  review, 
you  would  ride  that  horse  until  he  dropped. from 
exhaustion,  and  you  would  mount  another  horse  and 
ride  until  he  fell  from  exhaustion,  and  you  would 
take  another  and  another,  and  you  would  ride  along 
hour  after  hour,  and  day  after  day.  Great  host,  in 


THE   ARCH-FIEND   OF  THE   NATIONS.  603 

regiments,  in  brigades.  Great  armies  of  them.  And 
then  if  you  had  voice  enough  stentorian  to  make 
them  all  hear,  and  you  could  give  the  command, 
"  Forward,  march !"  their  first  tramp  would  make  the 
earth  tremble.  I  do  not  care  which  way  you  look  in 
the  community  to-day,  the  evil  is  increasing. 

I  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  there  are 
thousands  of  people  born  with  a  thirst  for  strong 
drink — a  fact  too  often  ignored.  Along  some  ances- 
tral lines  there  runs  the  river  of  temptation.  There 
are  children  whose  swaddling  clothes  are  torn  off 
the  shroud  of  death. 

Many  a  father  has  made  a  will  of  this  sort :  "  In 
the  name  of  God,  amen.  I  bequeath  to  my  children 
my  houses  and  lands  and  estates,  share  and  share 
shall  they  alike.  Hereto  I  affix  my  hand  and  seal  in 
the  presence  of  witnesses."  And  yet,  perhaps  that 
very  man  has  made  another  will  that  the  people  have 
never  read,  and  that  has  not  been  proved  in  the 
courts.  That  will  put  in  writing  would  read  some- 
thing like  this:  "  In  the  name  of  disease  and  appetite 
and  death,  amen.  I  bequeath  to  my  children  my  evil 
habits,  my  tankards  shall  be  theirs,  my  wine-cup  shall 
be  theirs,  my  destroyed  reputation  shall  be  theirs. 
Share  and  share  alike  shall  they  in  the  infamy. 
Hereto  I  affix  my  hand  and  seal  in  the  presence  of 
all  the  applauding  harpies  of  hell." 

From  the  multitude  of  those  who  have  the  evil 
habit  born  with  them,  this  army  is  being  augmented. 
And  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  a  great  many  of  the  drug- 
stores are  abetting  this  evil,  and  alcohol  is  sold  under 
the  name  of  bitters. 

It  is  bitters  for  this,  and  bitters  for  that,  and  bitters 
for  some  other  thing;  and  good  men  deceived,  not 


604  THE  ARCH-FIEND   OF  THE   NATIONS. 

knowing  there  is  any  thraldom  of  alcoholism  coming 
from  that  source,  are  going  down,  and  some  day  a 
man  sits  with  the  bottle  of  black  bitters  on  his  table, 
and  the  cork  flies  out,  and  after  it  flies  a  fiend,  and 
clutches  the  man  by  his  throat,  and  says:  "Aha!  I 
have  been  after  you  for  ten  years.  I  have  got  you 
now.  Down  with  you,  down  with  you!"  Bitters? 
Ah !  yes.  They  make  a  man's  family  bitter,  and  his 
home  bitter,  and  his  disposition  bitter,  and  his  death 
bitter,  and  his  hell  bitter.  Bitters:  A  vast  army  all 
the  time  increasing.  And  let  me  also  say  that  it  is  as 
thoroughly  organized  as  any  army,  with  commander- 
in-chief,  staff-officers,  infantry,  cavalry,  batteries,  sut- 
lerships,  and  flaming  ensigns,  and  that  every  candi- 
date for  office  in  America  will  yet  have  to  pronounce 
himself  the  friend  or  foe  of  the  liquor  traffic. 

I  have  in  my  possession  the  circular  of  a  brewers 
association — a  circular  sent  to  all  candidates  for  office  ; 
it  has  been  sent,  or  will  be  sent — a  form  to  be  filled 
up,  saying  whether  the  candidate  is  a  friend  of  the 
liquor  traffic,  or  its  enemy  ;  and  if  he  is  an  enemy  of 
the  business  then  the  man  is  doomed  ;  or  if  he  declines 
to  fill  up  the  circular,  and  send  it  back,  his  silence  is 
taken  as  a  negative  answer. 

It  seems  to  me  it  is  about  time  for  the  17,000,000 
professors  of  religion  in  America  to  take  sides.  It 
is  going  to  be  an  out-and-out  battle  between  drunken- 
ness and  sobriety,  between  heaven  and  hell,  betweeir 
God  and  the  devil.  Take  sides  before  there  is  any 
further  national  decadence ;  take  sides  before  your 
sons  are  sacrificed,  and  the  new  home  of  your  daugh- 
ter goes  down  under  the  alcoholism  of  an  embruted 
husband.  Take  sides  while  your  voice,  your  pen, 
your  prayer,  your  vote,  may  have  any  influence  in 


THE  ARCH-FIEND   OF  THE   NATIONS.  60$ 

arresting  the  despoliation  of  this  nation.  If  the  17,- 
000,000  professors  of  religion  should  take  sides  on 
this  subject,  it  would  not  be  very  long  before  the 
destiny  of  this  nation  would  be  decided  in  the  right 
direction. 

Is  it  a  State  evil  ?  or  is  it  a  national  evil  ?  Does  it 
belong  to  the  North  ?  or  does  it  belong  to  the  South  ? 
Does  it  belong  to  the  East  ?  or  does  it  belong  to  the 
West?  Ah!  there  is  not  an  American  river  into 
which  its  tears  have  not  fallen,  and  into  which  its 
suicides  have  not  plunged.  What  ruined  that 
Southern  plantation  ?  every  field  a  fortune,  the  pro- 
prietor and  his  family  once  the  most  affluent  support- 
ers of  summer  watering-places.  What  threw  that  New 
England  farm  into  decay  and  turned  the  roseate 
cheeks  that  bloomed  at  the  foot  of  the  Green  Moun- 
tains into  the  pallor  of  despair?  What  has  smitten 
every  street  of  every  village,  town,  and  city  of  this 
continent  with  a  moral  pestilence  ?  Strong  drink. 

To  prove  that  this  is  a  national  evil,  I  call  up  three 
States  in  opposite  directions — Maine,  Iowa,  and 
Georgia.  Let  them  testify  in  regard  to  this.  State 
of  Maine  says :  "  It  is  so  great  an  evil  up  here  we 
have  anathematized  it  as  a  State."  State  of  Iowa 
says :  "  It  is  so  great  an  evil  out  here  we  have  pro- 
hibited it  by  constitutional  amendment."  State  of 
Georgia  says :  "  It  is  so  great  an  evil  down  here  that 
ninety  counties  of  this  State  have  made  the  sale  of 
intoxicating  drink  a  criminality."  So  the  word  comes 
up  from  all  sources,  and  it  is  going  to  be  a  Waterloo, 
and  I  want  you  to  know  on  what  side  I  am  going  to 
be  when  that  Waterloo  is  fully  come,  and  I  want  you 
to  be  on  the  right  side.  Either  drunkenness  will  be 
destroyed  in  this  countrv,  or  the  American  Govern- 


606  THE   ARCH-FIEND   OF   THE    NATIONS. 

merit  will  be  destroyed.  Drunkenness  and  free  insti- 
tutions are  coming  into  a  death  grapple. 

Oh,  how  many  are  waiting  to  see  if  something  can 
not  be  done!  Thousands  of  drunkards  waiting  who 
cannot  go  ten  minutes  in  any  direction  without 
having  the  temptation  glaring  before  their  eyes  or 
appealing  to  their  nostrils,  they  fighting  against  it 
with  enfeebled  will  and  diseased  appetite,  conquering, 
then  surrendering,  conquering  again  and  surrender- 
ing again',  and  crying :  "  How  long,  O  Lord,  how 
long  before  these  infamous  solicitations  shall  be 
gone?" 

And  how  many  mothers  there  are  waiting  to  see  if 
this  national  curse  cannot  lift!  Oh,  is  that  the  boy 
that  had  the  honest  breath  who  comes  home  with 
breath  vitiated  or  disguised?  What  a  change  !  How 
quickly  those  habits  of  early  coming  home  have  been 
exchanged  for  the  rattling  of  the  night-key  in  the 
door  long  after  the  last  watchman  has  gone  by  and 
tried  to  see  that  everything  was  closed  up  for  the 
night !  Oh,  what  a  change  for  that  young  man  who 
we  had  hope  would  do  something  in  merchandise,  or 
in  artisanship,  or  in  a  profession,  that  would  do  honor 
to  the  family  name  long  after  mother's  wrinkled 
hands  are  folded  from  the  last  toil !  All  that  ex- 
changed for  startled  look  when  the  door-bell  rings, 
lest  something  has  happened.  And  the  wish  that  the 
scarlet  fever  twenty  years  ago  had  been  fatal,  for 
then  he  would  have  gone  directly  to  the  bosom  of 
his  Saviour.  But  alas!  poor  old  soul,  she  has  lived 
to  experience  what  Solomon  said:  "A  foolish  son  is 
a  heaviness  to  his  mother." 

Oh,  what  a  funeral  it  will  be  when  that  boy  is 
brought  home  dead !  And  how  mother  will  sit  there 


THE   ARCH-FIEND   OF   THE   NATIONS.  607 

and  say:  "Is  this  my  boy  that  I  used  to  fondle,  and 
that  I  walked  the  floor  with  in  the  night  when  he 
was  sick  ?  Is  this  the  boy  that  I  held  to  the  baptis- 
mal font  for  baptism  ?  Is  this  the  boy  for  whom  I 
toiled  until  the  blood  burst  from  the  tips  of  my  fin- 
gers that  he  might  have  a  good  start  and  a  good 
home?  Lord,  why  hast  Thou  let  me  live  to  see  this? 
Can  it  be  that  these  swollen  hands  are  the  ones  that 
used  to  wander  over  my  face  when  rocking  him  to 
sleep  ?  Can  it  be  that  this  is  the  swollen  brow  that 
I  once  so  rapturously  kissed  ?  Poor  boy !  how  tired 
he  does  look.  I  wonder  who  struck  him  that  blow 
across  the  temples  !  I  wonder  if  he  uttered  a  dying 
prayer !  Wake  up,  my  son  ;  don't  you  hear  me  ? 
wake  up !  Oh,  he  can't  hear  me  !  Dead,  dead,  dead  ! 
'  Oh,  Absalom,  my  son,  my  son,  would  God  that  I 
had  died  for  thee,  oh,  Absalom,  my  son,  my  son  ! ' ' 

I  am  not  much  of  a  mathematician,  and  I  cannot 
estimate  it ;  but  is  there  any  one  here  quick  enough 
at  figures  to  estimate  how  many  mothers  there  are 
waiting  for  something  to  be  done  ?  Aye,  there  are 
many  wives  waiting  for  domestic  rescue.  He  prom- 
ised something  different  from  that  when,  after  the 
long  acquaintance  and  the  careful  scrutiny  of  charac- 
ter, the  hand  and  the  heart  were  offered  and  accepted. 
What  a  hell  on  earth  a  woman  lives  in  who  has  a 
drunken  husband  ! 

O  Death,  how  lovely  thou  art  to  her,  and  how  soft 
and  warm  thy  skeleton  hand  !  The  sepulchre  at  mid- 
night in  winter  is  a  king's  drawing-room  compared 
with  that  woman's  home.  It  is  not  so  much  the  blow 
on  the  head  that  hurts,  as  the  blow  on  the  heart.  The 
rum  fiend  came  to  the  door  of  that  beautiful  home 
and  opened  the  door  and  stood  there,  and  said  :  "  I 


608  THE   ARCH-FIEND   OK   THE    NATIONS. 

curse  this  dwelling  with  an  unrelenting  curse.  I 
curse  that  father  into  a  maniac,  I  curse  that  mother 
into  a  pauper.  1  curse  those  sons  into  vagabonds.  I 
curse  those  daughters  into  profligacy.  Cursed  be 
bread-tray  and  cradle.  Cursed  be  couch  and  chair 
and  family  Bible  with  record  of  marriages  and  births 
and  deaths.  Curse  upon  curse."  Oh,  how  many 
wives  are  there  waiting  to  see  if  something  cannot 
be  done  to  shake  these  frosts  of  the  second  death  off 
the  orange  blossoms !  Yea,  God  is  waiting,  the  God 
who  works  through  human  instrumentalities,  waiting 
to  see  whether  this  nation  is  going  to  overthrow  this 
evil  ;  and  if  it  refuse  to  do  so  God  will  wipe  out  the 
nation  as  He  did  Phoenicia,  as  He  did  Rome,  as  He 
did  Thebes,  as  He  did  Babylon.  Aye,  He  is  waiting 
to  see  what  the  church  of  God  will  do.  If  the 
church  does  not  do  its  work,  then  He  will  wipe  it 
out  as  He  did  the  church  of  Ephesus,  church  of 
Thyatira,  church  of  Sardis.  The  Protestant  and 
Roman  Catholic  churches  to-day  stand  side  by  side 
with  an  impotent  look,  gazing  on  this  evil,  which 
costs  this  country  more  than  a  billion  dollars  a  year 
to  take  care  of  the  800,000  paupers,  and  the  315,000 
criminals,  and  the  30,000  idiots,  and  to  bury  the  75,- 
ooo  drunkards. 

Protagoras  boasted  that  out  of  the  sixty  years  of 
his  life  forty  years  he  had  spent  in  ruining  youth ; 
but  the  arch  fiend  of  the  nations  may  make  the  more 
infamous  boast  that  all  its  life  it  has  been  ruining  the 
bodies,  minds,  and  souls  of  the  human  race. 

Put  on  your  spectacles  and  take  a  candle  and 
examine  the  platforms  of  the  two  leading  political 
parties  of  this  country,  and  see  what  they  are  doing 
for  the  arrest  of  this  evil,  and  for  the  overthrow  of 


THE   ARCH-FIEND   OF  THE   NATIONS.  609 

this  abomination.  Resolutions — oh  yes,  resolutions 
about  Mormonism !  It  is  safe  to  attack  that  organ- 
ized nastiness  2,000  miles  away.  But  not  one  resolu- 
tion against  drunkenness,  which  would  turn  this 
entire  nation  into  one  bestial  Salt  Lake  City.  Reso- 
lutions against  political  corruption,  but  not  one  word 
about  drunkenness,  which  would  rot  this  nation  from 
scalp  to  heel.  Resolutions  about  protection,  against 
competition  with  foreign  industries,  but  not  one  word 
about  protection  of  family  and  church  and  nation 
against  the  scalding,  blasting,  all-consuming,  damning 
tariff  of  strong  drink  put  upon  every  financial,  indi- 
vidual, spiritual,  moral,  national  interest.  The  Demo- 
cratic party — in  power  for  the  most  of  the  time  for 
forty  years — what  did  that  national  party  do  for  the 
extirpation  of  this  evil?  Nothing,  absolutely  noth- 
ing, appallingly  nothing.  The  Republican  party  has 
been  in  power  for  about  a  quarter  of  a  century— 
what  has  it  done  as  a  national  party  to  extirpate  this 
evil  ?  Nothing,  absolutely  nothing,  appallingly  noth- 
ing. I  look  in  another  direction. 

The  Church  of  God  is  the  grandest  and  most 
glorious  institution  on  earth.  What  has  it  in  solid 
phalanx  accomplished  for  the  overthrow  of  drunken- 
ness ?  Have  its  forces  ever  been  marshaled  ?  No, 
not  in  this  direction. 

The  church  holds  the  balance  of  power  in  America; 
and  if  Christian  people — the  men  and  the  women  who 
profess  to  love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  love 
purity,  and  to  be  the  sworn  enemies  of  all  unclean- 
ness  and  debauchery  and  sin — if  all  such  would  march 
side  by  side  and  shoulder  to  shoulder,  this  evil  would 
soon  be  overthrown.  Think  of  300,000  churches  and 
Sunday-schools  in  Christendom,  marching  sboulder 

39 


6lO  THE  ARCH-FIEND   OF   THE   NATIONS. 

to  shoulder !  How  very  short  a  time  it  would  take 
them  to  put  down  this  evil,  if  all  the  churches  of  God 
—trans-Atlantic  and  cis-Atlantic — were  armed  on  this 
subject ! 

Young  men  of  America,  pass  over  into  the  army  of 
teetotalism.  Whisky,  good  to  preserve  corpses, 
ought  never  to  turn  you  into  a  corpse.  Tens  of 
thousands  of  young  men  have  been  dragged  out  of 
respectability,  and  out  of  purity,  and  out  of  good 
character,  and  into  darkness,  by  this  infernal  stuff 
called  strong  drink.  Do  not  touch  it !  Do  not 
touch  it ! 


CHAPTER  LX. 

THE  DEMAND  OF  GOD  AND  CIVILIZATION. 

There  have  been  in  the  world  hundreds  of  political 
parties.  They  did  their  work.  They  lost  their  pres- 
tige. They  expired.  Their  names  are  forgotten. 
Enough  for  me  to  declare  what  I  believe  God  and 
civilization  demand  of  the  two  political  parties  of  this 
day,  or  their  extermination.  God  and  civilization  de- 
mand of  the  political  parties  of  this  day  a  plank  anti- 
Mormonistic.  It  is  high  time  that  the  nation  stopped 
playing  with  this  cancer.  All  the  plasters  of  political 
quacks  only  aggravate  it,  and  nothing  but  the  sur- 
gery of  the  sword  will  cure  it.  All  the  congressional 
laws  on  this  subject  have  been  notorious  failures. 
Meanwhile  the  great  monster  sits  between  the  two 
mountains — the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Sierra  Ne- 
vadas — sits  in  defiance  and  mockery,  sometimes  hold- 
ing its  sides  with  uncontrollable  mirth  at  our  national 
impotency.  Shipload  after  shipload  of  Mormons  are 
regurgitated  at  your  Castle  Garden,  and  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  them  are  being  sent  on  to  the  great 
moral  lazaretto  of  the  West.  Others  are  on  the  way, 
and  the  Atlantic  is  heaving  toward  us  the  great  surges 
of  foreign  libertinism.  This  moment  the  emissaries  of 
that  organized  lust  are  busy  in  Norway  and  Sweden 
and  England  and  Ireland  and  Scotland  and  Germany, 
breaking  up  homes,  and  with  infernal  cords  draw- 
ing the  population  this  way,  a  population  which 

613 


614        THE  DEMAND  OF  (JOD  AND  CIVILIZATION. 

will  be  dumped  as  carrion  on  the  American  terri- 
tories. American  crime,  with  its  long  rake  stretched 
across  other  continents,  is  heaping  up  on  this  land 
great  winrows  of  abomination.  Worse  and  worse. 
Four  hundred  Mormons  coming  into  our  port  in  one 
day,  six  hundred  in  another  day,  eight  hundred  in 
another  day. 

Are  we  so  cowardly  and  selfish  in  this  generation 
that  we  are  going  to  bequeath  to  the  following  gen- 
erations this  great  evil?  Letting  it  go  on  until  our  chil- 
dren come  to  the  front  and  we  are  safely  entrenched 
under  the  mound  of  our  own  sepulchres,  leaving  our 
children  through  all  their  active  life  to  wonder  why 
we  postponed  this  evil  for  their  extirpation  when  we 
might  have  destroyed  it  with  a  hundred-fold  less  ex- 
posure. What  a  legacy  for  this  generation  to  leave 
the  following  generation  !  A  vast  acreage  of  swelter- 
ing putrefaction,  of  lowest  beastliness,  of  suffocating 
stench,  all  the  time  becoming  more  and  more  mal-odo- 
rous  and  rotten  and  damnable.  We  want  some  great 
political  party  in  some  strong  and  unmistakable  plank 
to  declare  that  it  will  extirpate  heroically  and  imme- 
diately this  great  harem  of  the  American  continent. 
We  want  some  President  of  the  United  States  to 
come  in  on  such  an  anti-Mbrmonistic  platform,  and  in 
his  opening  message  to  Congress  ask  for  an  appropri- 
ation for  military  expedition,  and  then  put  Phil  Sheri- 
dan in  his  lightning  stirrups,  heading  his  horse  west- 
ward, and  in  one  year  Mormonism  will  be  extirpated 
and  national  decency  vindicated.  Compelling  Mor- 
monistic  chiefs  to  take  oath  of  allegiance  will  not  do 
it,  for  they  have  declared  in  open  assembly  that  per- 
jury in  their  cause  is  commendable.  Religious  tracts 
on  purity  amount  to  nothing.  They  will  not  read 


THE  DEMAND  OF  GOD  AND  CIVILIZATION.        615 

them.     Anything    shorter   than    bayonets   and    any- 
thing softer  than  bullets  will  never  do  that  work. 

Every  day  you  open  a  paper  and  you  see  in  the 
State  of  New  York  some  bigamist  arrested  and  pun- 
ished. What  you  prohibit  on  a  small  scale  for  a 
State  you  allow  on  a  large  scale  for  a  nation.  Big- 
amy must  be  put  down.  Polygamy  must  go  free. 
What  has  been  the  effect,  my  friends?  It  has  de- 
moralized this  whole  nation.  That  carbuncle  on  the 
back  of  the  nation  has  sickened  all  the  nerves,  and 
muscles,  and  arteries,  and  veins,  and  limbs  of  the 
body  politic.  I  account  in  that  way  for  many  of  the 
loose  ideas  abroad  on  all  sides  on  the  subject  of  the 
marriage  relation.  Divorce  by  the  wholesale.  Con- 
cubinage in  high  circles.  Libertinism,  if  gloved  and 
patent  leathered,  admitted  into  high  circle.  The 
malaria  of  Salt  Lake  City  has  smitten  the  nation  with 
moral  typhoid.  The  bad  influence  has  well-nigh 
spiked  that  gun  of  Sinai  which  needs  to  thunder 
over  the  New  England  hills,  over  the  savannas  of  the 
South  and  over  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Sierra 
Nevadas  clear  to  the  Pacific  coast,  "  Thou  shalt  not 
commit  adultery !"  In  1878,  in  the  State  of  Maine, 
over  400  cases  of  divorce.  In  the  State  of  Mass- 
achusetts, in  the  same  year,  over  600  divorces.  In 
the  little  State  of  Connecticut  in  that  year,  over  400 
divorces.  In  New  England  in  that  year  2,113 
divorces.  The  County  of  Cook,  in  Illinois,  over  800 
divorces  in  one  year.  Advertisements  in  newspapers 
saying,  "  Divorce  legally  and  quietly  effected.  Can 
pay  in  installments  !"  Some  of  the  New  York  law- 
yers giving  their  entire  time  to  domestic  separations 
— suborning  witnesses,  giving  advice  as  to  how  many 
months  it  is  necessary  to  be  out  of  the  city,  inducing 


01 6        THE  DEMAND  OF  GOD  AND  CIVILIZATION. 

suspicious  complications,  sending  detective  sleuth 
hounds  on  the  track  of  good  citizens,  until  the  honest 
lawyers  of  these  cities  were  compelled  a  little  while 
ago  to  make  outcry  against  the  bemeaning  of  their 
honorable  profession.  Looser  and  looser  ideas  on 
the  subject  of  marriage,  until  sometimes  the  ques- 
tion of  divorce  is  taken  into  consideration  in  the 
wedding  solemnities,  and  people  promise  fidelity  till 
death  do  them  part,  and  say  afterward  softly,  "  per- 
haps," or  "  may  be,"  "  I  rather  think  so."  All  over 
this  land  more  and  more  marriage  in  fun. 

We  do  not  want  divorce  made  more  easy  in  this 
country  ;  we  want  it  made  more  hard,  so  that  people 
will  be  more  cautious  in  their  affiancing,  and  you 
will  understand  that  if  you  marry  a  brute  of  a  hus- 
band or  a  fool  of  a  wife,  you  will  have  to  stand  it. 
Ah!  my  friends,  there  will  be  no  toning  up  on  this 
subject,  there  will  be  no  moral  health  in  the  United 
States  on  the  subject  of  the  marriage  relation  until 
this  nation  shall  slough  off  this  Mormonistic  ulcer, 
and  burn  out  with  caustic  of  gunpowder  this  wound 
which  has  been  so  long  feculent  and  ichorous  and 
deathful.  If  you  are  under  the  delusion  that  by  mild 
laws  passed  against  Mormonism  the  evil  will  be  extir- 
pated, you  are  making  an  awful  mistake.  The  sooner 
you  get  over  it  the  better.  God  and  civilization 
demand  of  both  political  parties  now  a  plank  anti- 
Mormonistic. 

Again,  there  is  demanded  of  the  political  parties  in 
this  day,  a  plank  of  intelligent  helpfulness  for  the 
great  foreign  population  which  have  come  among  us. 
It  is  too  late  now  to  discuss  whether  we  had  better 
let  them  come.  They  are  here.  They  are  coming 
this  moment  through  the  Narrows,  they  are  coming 


THE  DEMAND  OF  GOD  AND  CIVILIZATION.        6l/ 

this  moment  through  the  gates  of  Castle  Garden, 
they  are  this  moment  taking  the  first  full  inhalation 
of  the  free  air  of  America,  and  they  will  continue  to 
come  as  long  as  this  country  is  the  best  place  to  live 
in.  You  might  as  well  pass  a  law  prohibiting  sum- 
mer bees  from  alighting  on  a  field  of  blossoming 
buckwheat,  you  might  as  well  prohibit  the  stags  of 
the  mountains  from  coming  down  to  the  deer  lick,  as 
to  prohibit  the  hunger-bitten  nations  of  Europe  from 
coming  to  this  land  of  bread,  as  to  prohibit  the  peo- 
ple of  England,  Ireland,  Scotland,  Norway,  Sweden, 
and  Germany,  working  themselves  to  death  on  small 
wages  on  the  other  side  the  sea,  from  coming  to  this 
land,  where  there  are  the  largest  compensations 
under  the  sun.  Why  did  God  spread  out  the  prai- 
ries of  Dakota,  and  roll  the  precious  ore  into  Col- 
orado? It  was  that  all  the  earth  might  come  and 
plow,  and  come  and  dig.  Just  as  long  as  the  centrif- 
ugal force  of  foreign  despotisms  throw  them  off,  just 
so  long  will  the  centripetal  force  of  American  institu- 
tions draw  them  here. 

And  that  is  what  is  going  to  make  this  the  might- 
iest nation  of  the  earth.  Intermarriage  of  nation- 
alities. Not  circle  intermarrying  circle,  and  nation 
intermarrying  nation,  but  it  is  going  to  be  Italian  and 
Norwegian,  Russian  and  Celt,  Scotch  and  French, 
English  and  American.  The  American  of  a  hundred 
years  from  now  is  to  be  different  from  the  American 
of  to-day.  German  brain,  Irish  wit,  French  civility, 
Scotch  firmness,  English  loyalty,  Italian  aesthetics 
packed  into  one  man,  and  he  an  American.  It  is  this 
intermarriage  of  nationalities  that  is  going  to  make 
the  American  race  the  mightiest  race  of  the  ages. 
Now,  I  say,  in  God's  name  let  them  come. 


6l8         THE  DEMAND  OF  GOD  AND  CIVILIZATION. 

But  what  are  we  doing  for  the  moral  and  intel- 
lectual culture  of  the  500,000  foreigners  who  came  in 
one  year,  and  the  600,000  who  came  in  another  year, 
and  the  800,000  who  came  in  another  year,  and  the 
1,000,000  who  came  into  our  various  American  ports. 
What  are  we  doing  for  them  ?  Well,  we  are  doing  a 
great  deal  for  them.  We  steal  their  baggage  as  soon 
as  they  get  ashore  !  We  send  them  up  to  a  boarding- 
house  where  the  least  they  lose  is  their  money.  We 
swindle  them  within  ten  minutes  after  they  get 
ashore.  We  are  doing  a  great  deal  for  them  !  But 
what  are  we  doing  to  introduce  them  into  the  duties 
of  good  citizenship  ?  Many  of  them  never  saw  a 
ballot-box,  many  of  them  never  heard  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  many  of  them  have  no 
acquaintance  with  our  laws.  Now,  I  say,  let  the 
Government  ol  the  United  States,  so  commanded  by 
some  political  party,  give  to  every  immigrant  who 
lands  here  a  volume  in  good  type  and  well  bound  for 
long  usage — a  volume  containing  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
and  a  chapter  on  the  spirit  of  oiir  Government.  Let 
there  be  such  a  book  on  every  shelf  of  every  free 
library  in  America.  While  the  American  Bible 
Society  puts  into  the  right  hand  of  every  immigrant 
a  copy  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  let  the  Government 
of  the  United  States,  so  commanded  by  some  -polit- 
ical party,  put  into  the  left  hand  of  every  immigrant 
a  volume  instructing  him  in  the  duties  of  good 
citizenship.  There  are  thousands  of  foreigners  in 
this  land  who  need  to  learn  that  the  ballot-box  is  not 
a  footstool  but  a  throne;  not  something  to  put  your 
foot  on,  but  something  to  bow  before. 

Again,  it  is  demanded  of  the  political  parties  of  this 


THE  DEMAND  OF  GOD  AND  CIVILIZATION.         6lQ 

day  that  they  have  a  plank  that  shall  acknowledge 
God.  Let  there  be  no  favoring  of  sects.  Let  Trini- 
tarian and  Unitarian,  Jew  and  Gentile,  Protestant 
and  Roman  Catholic,  be  alike,  in  the  sight  of  the  law 
— every  man  free  to  worship  in  his  own  way — but  let 
no  political  party  think  it  can  do  its  duty,  unless  it 
acknowledges  that  God,  who  built  this  continent, 
and  revealed  it  at  the  right  time  to  the  discoverer, 
and  who  has  reared  here  a  prosperity  which  has  been 
given  to  no  other  people.  "  Oh,"  says  some  one, 
"  there  are  people  in  this  country  who  do  not  believe 
in  a  God,  and  it  would  be  an  insult  to  them."  Well, 
there  are  people  in  this  country  who  do  not  believe 
in  common  decency,  or  common  honesty,  or  any  kind 
of  government,  preferring  %  anarchy.  Your  every 
platform  is  an  insult  to  them.  You  ought  not  to  re- 
gard a  man  who  does  not  believe  in  God  any  more 
than  you  should  regard  a  man  who  refuses  to  believe 
in  common  decency.  Your  pocketbook  is  not  safe  a 
moment  in  the  presence  of  an  atheist !  God  is  the 
only  source  of  good  government.  Why  not,  then, 
say  so,  and  let  the  chairman  of  the  committee  on  res- 
olutions in  your  national  convention  take  a  pen  full 
of  ink,  and  with  bold  hand  head  the  document  with 
one  significant,  "Whereas,"  acknowledging  the  good- 
ness of  God  in  the  past,  and  begging  His  kindness 
and  protection  for  the  future. 

For  the  lack  of  recognition  of  God  in  your  political 
platforms  they  amount  to  nothing.  They  both  make 
loud  declaration  about  civil  service  reform,  and  it  has 
been  a  failure.  If  you  can  take  now  in  your  cool 
moments  the  declaration  made  by  the  Democratic 
party  in  Cincinnati  in  1880,  and  the  declaration  made 
by  the  Republican  party  in  Chicago  in  1 880,  and  read 


620        THK  DEMAND  OF  C.OD  AND  CIVILIZATION. 

those  two  declarations  on  the  subject  of  civil  service 
reform,  and  then  think  of  what  has  transpired,  and 
control  your  mirth,  you  have  more  self-control  than 
I  have.  My  child  asks  me  what  is  civil  service  reform, 
and  I  tell  him,  as  near  as  I  can  understand,  it  is  that 
when  the  Republican  party  get  the  government  of  a 
State  they  are  to  turn  out  the  Democrats,  and  when 
the  Democrats  get  the  supremacy  in  the  State  they 
are  to  turn  out  the  Republicans. 

Your  platforms  cry  out  for  reform,  and  promise 
reform,  if  they  are  only  kept  in  power,  or  may  obtain 
power.  How  much  do  they  mean  by  reform?  See 
what  the  Republican  party  did  in  1876  in  Louisiana 
and  what  the  Democratic  party  did  three  or  four 
years  after  in  the  gubernatorial  election  in  Maine ! 
Credit  Mobilier  of  eleven  years  ago,  River  and  Har- 
bor Bill,  by  which  last  year  the  taxpayers  of  the 
United  States  were  swindled  out  of  fifty  millions  of 
dollars — in  both  infamies  the  two  parties  shoulder  to 
shoulder,  and  side  to  side.  What  you  want  is  more 
of  God  in  your  pronunciamentoes.  Without  Him 
reform  is  retrogression,  and  gain  is  loss,  and  victory 
is  defeat. 

Why,  my  friends,  this  country  belongs  to  God,  and 
we  ought  in  every  possible  way  to  acknowledge  it. 
From  the  moment  that,  on  an  October  morning,  in 
1492,  Columbus  looked  over  the  side  of  the  ship,  and 
saw  the  carved  staff  which  made  him  think  he  was 
near  an  inhabited  country,  and  saw  also  a  thorn  and 
a  cluster  of  berries — type  of  our  history  ever  since, 
the  piercing  sorrows  and  the  cluster  of  national  joys 
—until  this  hour,  our  country  has  been  bounded  on 
the  north  and  south  and  east  and  west  by  the  good- 
ness of  God.  The  Huguenots  took  possession  of  the 


THE  DEMAND  OF  GOD  AND  CIVILIZATION".        621 

Carolinas  in  the  name  of  God  ;  William  Penn  settled 
Philadelphia  in  the  name  of  God  ;  the  Hollanders 
took  possession  of  New  York  in  the  name  of  God  ; 
the  Pilgrim  Fathers  settled  New  England  in  the  name 
of  God.  Preceding  the  first  gun  of  Bunker  Hill,  at 
the  voice  of  prayer  all  heads  uncovered.  In  the 
war  of  1812  an  officer  came  to  General  Andrew 
Jackson  and  said :  "  There  is  an  unusual  noise  in  the 
camp  ;  it  ought  to  be  stopped."  General  Jackson 
said:  "What  is  the  noise?"  The  officer  said  :  "It 
is  the  voices  of  prayer  and  praise."  And  the  Gen- 
eral said  ;  "  God  forbid  that  prayer  and  praise  should 
be  an  unusual  noise  in  the  encampment ;  you  had 
better  go  and  join  them."  Prayer  at  Valley  Forge, 
prayer  at  Monmouth,  prayer  at  Atlanta,  prayer  at 
South  Mountain,  prayer  at  Gettysburg. 

"  Oh,"  says  some  infidel,  "  the  Northern  people 
prayed  on  one  side,  and  the  Southern  people  prayed 
on  the  other  side,  and  so  it  didn't  amount  to  anything." 
And  I  have  heard  good  Christian  people  confounded 
with  the  infidel  statement,  when  it  is  as  plain  to  me 
as  my  right  hand.  Yes,  the  Northern  people  prayed 
in  one  way,  and  the  Southern  people  prayed  in 
another  way,  and  God  answered  in  His  own  way, 
giving  to  the  North  the  re-establishment  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  giving  to  the  South  larger  opportu- 
nities, larger  than  she  had  ever  anticipated,  the  har- 
nessing Oi  her  rivers  in  great  manufacturing  interests, 
until  the  Mobile,  and  the  Tallapoosa,  and  the  Chatta- 
hoochee,  are  Southern  Merrimacs,  and  the  unrolling 
of  great  mines  of  coal  and  iron,  of  which  the  world 
knew  nothing,  and  opening  before  her  opportuni- 
ties of  wealth  which  will  give  ninety -nine  per  cent, 
more  of  affluence  than  she  ever  possessed.  And,  in- 


622         THE  DEMAND  OF  GOD  AND  CIVILIZATION. 

stead  of  the  black  hands  of  American  slaves  emanci- 
pated, there  are  the  more  industrious  and  black  hands 
of  the  coal  and  iron  industries  of  the  South  which 
will  achieve  for  her  fabulous  and  unimagined  wealth. 

"And  there  are  domes  of  white  blossoms  where  spread  the  white  tent, 
And  theieare  ploughs  in  the  track  where  the  war  wagons  went, 
And  there  are  songs  where  they  lifted  up  Rachel's  lament." 

Oh,  you  are  a  stupid  man  if  you  do  not  understand 
how  God  answered  Abraham  Lincoln's  prayer  in  the 
White  House,  and  Stonewall  Jackson's  prayer  in  the 
saddle,  and  answered  all  the  prayers  of  all  the  cathe- 
drals on  both  sides  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line. 
God's  country  all  the  way  past.  God's  country 
now. 

Put  His  name  in  your  pronunciamentoes,  put  His 
name  on  your  ensigns,  put  His  name  on  your  city 
and  State  and  national  enterprises,  put  His  name  in 
vour  hearts.  To  most  of  us  this  country  was  the 
cradle,  and  to  most  of  us  it  will  be  the  grave.  We 
want  the  same  glorious  privileges  which  we  enjoy  to 
go  down  to  our  children.  We  can  not  sleep  well  the 
last  sleep,  nor  will  the  pillow  of  dust  be  easy  to  our 
heads  until  we  are  assured  that  the  God  of  our 
American  institutions  in  the  past  will  be  the  God  of 
our  American  institutions  in  the  days  that  are  to 
come.  Oh,  when  all  the  rivers  which  empty  into 
the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  seas  shall  pull  on  factory 
bands,  when  all  the  great  mines  of  gold,  and  silver, 
and  iron,  and  coal  shall  be  laid  bare  for  the  nation, 
when  the  last  swamp  shall  be  reclaimed,  and  the  last 
jungle  cleared,  and  the  last  American  desert  Eden- 
ized,  and  from  sea  to  sea  the  continent  shall  be  occu- 
pied by  more  than  twelve  hundred  million  souls, 
may  it  be  found  that  moral  and  religious  influences 


THE  DEMAND  OF  GOD  AND  CIVILUA  TTON.        623 

were  multiplied  in  more  rapid  ratio  than  the  popu- 
lation. And  then  there  shall  be  four  doxologies 
coming  from  north,  and  south,  and  east,  and  west — 
four  doxologies  rolling  toward  each  other  and  meet- 
ing mid-continent  with  such  dash  of  holy  joy  that 
they  shall  mount  to  the  throne. 

"  And  Heaven's  high  arch  resound  again 
With  'peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men.' " 


CHAPTER  LXI. 

BOSSISM. 

Each  village  and  town  has  what  is  called  in  old- 
fashioned  parlance  its  "  boss,"  and  every  city  has  its 
"  boss,"  and  every  State  its  "  boss,"  and  all  these 
"  bosses "  will  come  together  and  elect  a  great 
national  "  boss."  Against  this  slavery  of  American 
politics  I  protest,  and  demand  that  in  convention  and 
in  ballot-box  every  man,  without  hindrance  or  male- 
diction, vote  as  he  thinks  best,  God  his  only  judge. 

In  the  first  place,  if  we  would  break  this  slavery  of 
American  politics,  we  must  decline  every  four  years 
to  believe  that  everything  is  in  peril.  If  our  Ameri- 
can institutions  every  four  years  are  in  danger  of 
smash-up,  the  sooner  they  go  to  pieces  the  better, 
and  we  have  substituted  a  government  which  shall 
have  in  it  some  style,  some  element  of  durability.  I 
remember  eleven  Presidential  elections,  and  in  each 
one  we  were  told  that  everything  was  in  peril.  As 
near  as  I  could  tell,  we  were  within  a  quarter  of  an 
inch  of  the  eternal  precipice.  Voters  went  to  the 
ballot-box  tremulous  with  omens.  Wagons  and  car- 
riages were  sent  for  the  aged  and  the  invalid.  At 
party  expense  these  persons  were  brought  forth,  and 
patriots  who  by  strange  coincidence  at  the  same  time 
were  candidates  for  office — these  patriots  lifted  the 
invalids  from  the  bed  and  the  wagon,  where  there 
were  pillows  and  mattresses,  and  the  unfortunates 

624 


BOSSISM.  625 

were  carefully  supported  on  both  sides  to  the  polls, 
where  they  deposited  for  the  very  life  of  the  country 
their  precious  votes, 

Now,  while  there  have  been  pivotal  elections,  in 
the  majority  of  cases  there  is  nothing  at  stake  but 
official  patronage.  This  magnifying  of  national  peril 
and  this  working  before  the  public  mind,  on  wires 
the  skeleton  of  national  dangers  every  four  years, 
halts  business  and  demoralizes  everything.  What  do 
Western  merchants  want  to  come  here  and  buy 
goods  for  if  next  autumn  everything  is  to  be  a  howl- 
ing wilderness?  What  do  Eastern  men  want  to  buy 
Western  lands  for  when  everything  is  to  be  paralyzed  ? 
All  business  men  will  tell  you  that  every  four  years 
is  an  idle  year.  Why  ?  Because  everything  is  stag- 
nated by  this  cry  of  peril  when  there  is  no  peril, 
there  is  no  crisis. 

I  remember  that  at  eight  years  of  age  I  stood  in 
the  blistering  sun  and  barefoot,  at  Somerville,  New 
Jersey,  hearing  a  Western  orator,  who  persuaded  me 
in  that  Presidential  election  that  if  William  Henry 
Harrison  was  elected  instead  of  Martin  Van  Buren, 
there  would  be  no  use  of  my  growing  up,  because 
there  would  be  no  country  to  grow  in  !  Not  long  ago, 
in  Music  Hall,  Boston,  I  was  lecturing,  and  just  be- 
fore the  lecture  there  -I  was  told  a  Western  orator 
would  that  night  speak  at  Faneuil  Hall ;  so  I  hastened 
through  my  work  and  got  down  to  the  Cradle  of 
Liberty,  and  found  it  that  night  rocked  by  the  same 
Western  orator  and  the  same  Western  speech,  and 
the  only  difference  between  the  speech  I  heard  forty 
years  ago  and  that  speech  was,  in  one  case  it  was 
William  Henry  Harrison,  and  in  the  other  it  was 
Benjamin  F.  Butler. 


626  BOSSISM. 

Many  of  us  remember  the  Presidential  election 
when  Henry  Clay  and  James  K.  Polk  were  the  can- 
didates for  the  Presidency.  My  father  sat  down  pale 
and  exhausted  and  sick  at  the  defeat  of  Henry  Clay, 
and  said  that  all  was  lost.  He  had  felt  the  magnet- 
ism of  that  splendid  Kentuckian,  whose  name  I  can 
not  pronounce  without  feeling  an  enthusiasm  ting- 
ling from  scalp  to  heel.  But  was  everything  lost  ? 
Through  that  election  we  got  the  Texan  domain,  and 
door  after  door  of  annexation  has  been  opened  until 
when  the  wind  blows  from  the  west  the  national  flag 
dips  into  the  Atlantic,  and  when  it  blows  from  the 
east  the  national  flag  dips  into  the  Pacific.  We  were 
positively  told  that  the  existence  of  this  nation  de- 
pended upon  Mr.  Lincoln's  second  election  to  the 
Presidency  ;  but  immediately  after  his  inauguration 
he  died,  and  Andrew  Johnson  put  the  government  in 
just  the  opposite  direction,  and  we  still  live. 

During  the  sixteen  years  in  which  I  have  lived  in 
the  State  of  New  York,  at  every  gubernatorial  elec- 
tion we  have  been  told  that  everything  was  at  stake. 
Officers  have  changed,  but  there  has  been  no  change 
in  our  prosperity  except  from  good  to  better,  and  I 
have  noticed  that  the  sun  rises  at  about  the  same  time 
in  the  same  month  of  the  year,  and  the  tides  come  in 
with  about  the  same  strength,  and  it  is  high  time  in 
this  country  we  stop  this  crisis  business  and  under- 
stand that  the  Lord  God  has  capacity  to  keep  this 
nation  on  in  its  high  march  of  prosperity  without 
the  help  of  Chicago  conventions. 

The  old  lion  of  national  strength  is  covered  all  over 
with  greenbottle  flies,  sucking  the  life-blood  from 
neck  and  flanks. 

The  old  lion  of  our  national  strength  may  shake  it- 


BOSSISM.  627 

self  terrifically,  and  another  set  of  greenbottle  flies, 
but  more  hungry,  will  take  their  place.  Do  not 
stand  agape  as  to  what  will  happen  next.  Go  about 
your  honest  everyday  business.  Do  not  believe  the 
political  bureaus  that  declare  that  everything  is  in 
peril.  There  is  no  more  danger  that  this  Govern- 
ment is  going  to  pieces,  than  that  the  moon  is  going 
to  pieces. 

Again,  if  we  want  to  break  this  tyranny  of  Amer- 
ican politics,  we  must  understand  that  neither  party 
is  immaculate. 

Do  not  vote  for  a  man  merely  because  your  party 
nominates  him.  If  you  want  to  know  how  much 
better  one  party  is  than  the  other,  I  put  the  Louisi- 
ana Returning  Board  of  one  party  beside  the  guber- 
natorial conflict  of  1879,  i"  Maine,  and  I  put  the 
Belknap  frauds  of  one  party  against  the  Tweed  lar- 
cenies of  the  other.  There  is  a  difference  in  men,  but 
the  only  difference  between  the  parties  as  to  moral 
character  to-day,  in  my  estimation,  is  the  difference 
between  fifty  and  half  a  hundred.  Both  parties  are 
in  need  of  radical  reformation,  and  by  the  time  they 
are  reformed  they  may  be  reformed  out  of  existence. 

But  is  there  no  difference?  are  there  no  preferences? 
Ah  !  so  far  from  saying  that,  a  man  who  does  not  in- 
telligently, and  in  the  fear  and  love  of  God,  exercise 
the  right  of  suffrage,  is  not  worthy  of  American  citi- 
zenship. There  are  preferences,  and  while  every  in- 
telligent man  and  woman  in  America  is  to-day  ask- 
ing the  question,  "  Who  shall  be  the  next  President 
of  the  United  States?"  I  want  to  say  two  or  three 
things.  In  the  first  place,  the  next  President  of  the 
United  States,  and  every  President,  ought  to  have  an 
established  moral  character,  There  have  been  times 


628  BOSSISM. 

when  \\-f  have  had  candidates  for  Governors,  and 
candidates  for  the  Presidential  chair,  who  were  liber- 
tines and  gamblers  and  drunkards.  In  the  House  of 
Representatives  and  in  the  United  States  Senate  we 
have  had  men  who  could  not  walk  straight  because 
of  intoxication,  representing  Illinois  and  Pennsyl- 
vania and  New  York.  I  am  glad  to  know  that  the 
question  of  good  morals  is  coming  into  every  political 
canvass.  I  do  not  care  how  talented  a  man  is,  if  he 
is  bad. 

Genius  is  worse  than  stupidity,  if  it  move  in  the 
wrong  direction.  In  a  nation  where  there  are  so 
many  homes,  we  must  have  at  the  head  of  it  a  man 
who  honors  the  sanctity  of  the  domestic  circle.  In  a 
nation  where  there  are  so  many  young  men  looking 
for  an  example  of  good  character,  we  must  have  at 
the  head  only  one  characterized  by  integrity.  A  man 
who  cannot  govern  himself  cannot  govern  fifty  mil- 
lions of  people.  Our  schools,  our  colleges,  our  uni- 
versities, our  churches,  and  our  homesteads  must 
fight  for  good  morals. 

But  do  not  listen  to  the  hue  and  cry  of  partisan- 
ship. You  can  get  no  idea  from  what  newspapers 
have  to  say  of  men,  what  their  real  character  is. 
The  best  man  that  God  ever  made,  nominated  on 
either  side,  must  wade  through  obloquy  chin-deep. 
Defamation  elected  James  A.  Garfield.  Defamation 
elected  Abraham  Lincoln.  Defamation,  I  am  told 
by  one  who  remembers  the  time,  elected- Andrew 
Jackson,  and  that  is  the  testimony  of  one  who  is  far 
from  liking  Andrew  Jackson.  You  have  to  take  the 
scales  and  put  on  one  side  all  the  scurrility  about  the 
Republican  candidate,  and  put  on  the  other  side  the 
scale  all  the  scurrility  about  the  Democratic  candi- 


BOSSISM.  629 

date,  weighing  scurrility  against  scurrility,  and  the 
man  who  is  most  abused  and  has  the  most  scurrility 
hurled  upon  him,  will  be  the  President.  There  is  a 
philosophy  in  it,  my  brethren.  There  are  many  bad 
things  about  human  nature,  but  there  are  many  good 
things  about  human  nature,  and  one  of  the  best 
things  about  human  nature  is  that  it  sympathizes 
with  one  who  is  traduced. 

Have  nothing  to  do,  by  pen,  or  type,  or  voice,  in 
the  malediction  of  public  men.  In  the  characteriz- 
ation of  men  in  private  life  we  exercise  Christian 
principle,  and  we  are,  if  we  are  good  men,  disposed 
to  put  the  best  phase  and  the  best  interpretation  on 
conduct,  and  it  is  only  a  bad  man  who  chooses  always 
to  think  bad  of  his  fellows.  Charity  thinketh  well, 
if  it  is  possible  to  think  well. 

Now,  my  brethren,  let  us  in  public  life  do  as  well 
as  we  do  in  private  life,  and  the  same  charity  we  ex- 
tend toward  those  in  private  life  extend  toward  those 
who  are  in  public  life.  Remember,  my  friends,  when 
you  come  to  judge  in  regard  to  the  character  ot 
men  who  shall  be  before  this  nation,  you  are 
Christian  patriots  and  not  scavengers.  I  abhor  this 
defamation  of  public  men.  Just  as  soon  as  a  man 
comes  to  the  front  and  achieves  anything  by  his  elo- 
quence, or  by  his  brilliancy,  or  by  his  public  services, 
all  the  hounds  of  earth  and  hell  get  after  him. 
Calmly  and  deliberately  judge  of  men  in  the  fear 
and  love  of  God,  as  you  yourself  would  like  to  be 
judged.  You  yourself  perhaps  may  not  come  to 
highest  political  position,  but  your  sons  may  be  on 
the  way  to  the  honors  of  this  government.  Treat 
men  now  in  public  life  with  the  same  fairness  and 
generosity  that  you  would  have  your  sons  treated 
when  they  come  to  high  position  in  life. 


630  BOSSISM. 

Then,  in  order  to  be  qualified  for  the  chief  office 
of  this  nation,  a  man  must  also  be  a  respecter  of  the 
Christian  religion.  I  apply  no  religious  test.  But 
this  country,  discovered  by  Christian  men  and  set- 
tled by  Hollanders  and  Huguenots  and  the  descend- 
ants of  men  from  other  lands  who  were  persecuted 
for  their  religious  faith,  and  who  took  possession  of 
this  land  in  the  name  of  God  and  heaven — such  a 
country  as  this  must  have  over  it  one  who  respects 
the  Christian  religion.  Never,  my  Christian  friends, 
under  any  circumstances  vote  for  any  man  who  does 
not  believe  in  the  existence  of  God  and  the  divinity 
of  the  Bible.  A  man  who  does  not  believe  in  the 
existence  of  God  and  the  divinity  of  the  Bible  I 
would  not  trust  him  with  a  ten-cent  piece,  much  less 
elevate  him  to  the  Presidency.  This  is  the  only 
foundation  of  common  honesty,  the  Bible.  I  often 
hear  it  said  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
is  the  foundation  of  our  institutions.  It  is  not.  The 
Bible  is  the  foundation.  Republican  institutions  are 
an  everlasting  impossibility  without  it.  Our  first 
President  was  a  Christian.  Let  our  next  President 
be  at  any  rate  a  respecter  of  the  Christian  religion. 

Then  he  must  have  heart  large  enough  to  take  in 
all  the  States  and  Territories.  If  a  Western  man,  he 
must  not  despise  the  sea-coast  or  want  an  immediate' 
change  of  the  center  of  commercial  life.  If  an  East- 
ern man,  he  must  not  despise  the  West.  If  a  South- 
ern man,  he  must  not  think  all  men  of  the  North  of 
ignoble  generation.  If  a  Northern  man,  he  must  not 
want  to  keep  up  the  old  grudge  which  we  settled 
twenty-one  years  ago.  He  must  have  a  heart  large 
enough  to  take  in  all  the  nation.  There  can  never  be 
any  more  conflict  in  this  country.  The  sword  has 


BOSSISM.  63 1 

given  place  to  the  wheat  cradle.  The  time  of  dark- 
ness and  contention  has  all  gone  by,  and  there  is  to  be 
no  more  use  in  this  country  for  the  musket  except  for 
holiday  turnout.  Our  navy-yards  are  going  to  be- 
come museums  containing  ships  used  in  barbaric  ages 
for  settling  by  slaughter  national  differences.  The 
eagle  has  got  to  get  off  our  coin  and  the  dove  take 
its  place,  the  bird  of  blood  giving  way  for  the  bird  of 
the  olive  branch.  I  prescribe  for  the  cure  of  all  national 
evils,  and  I  prescribe  for  a  defence  against  all  national 
peril  the  Christianization  of  the  people.  Let  Chris- 
tianity take  possession  of  the  ballot-box,  there  will  be 
no  illegal  voting.  Let  Christianity  take  charge  of  the 
primaries  and  the  caucuses,  and  we  will  have  right- 
eous nominees.  Do  not  expect  that  the  politicians  of 
this  country  will  ever  save  the  land.  What  have 
they  ever  done  for  this  country  but  get  office  and 
make  trouble  ?  They  got  us  into  the  four  years'  war. 
Did  they  get  us  out  of  it?  No.  The  great  masses 
of  the  people  rose  up,  fought  out  the  fight  and  then 
commanded  peace.  Politicians  again  and  again  have 
ruined  American  commerce.  Did  they  restore  it? 
No.  The  great  masses  of  the  people,  with  hard-fisted 
and  besweated  industry,  conquered  those  financial 
calamities.  So  much  depending  upon  the  great  masses 
of  the  people,  let  us  have  them  evangelized. 

We  want  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  dominant — 
that  Gospel  which  William  E.  Gladstone  demon- 
strated when  he  sent  an  apology  a  few  years  ago  to 
the  Austrian  Government.  He  found  he  was  wrong, 
and  apologized  for  it.  Some  said,  "  Oh,  what  imbe- 
cility !"  I  say  it  was  the  grandest  specimen  of  Chris- 
tian character,  possible.  We  settle  individual  differ- 
ences by  explanation  and  apology.  Why  not  national 


632  BOSSISM. 

differences?  Why  by  the  sword?  "Glory  to  God 
in  the  highest,  and  on  earth  peace,  good  will  to  men.'' 

Oh,  this  is  the  brightest  day  in  all  our  history.  Our 
land  is  coming  to  greater  and  greater  prosperity. 

Agriculture  is  going  to  bring  all  its  harvests,  and 
manufacturing  is  going  to  bring  all  its  adroit  fabrics, 
and  literature  is  going  to  bring  all  its  printing-presses, 
and  art  is  going  to  bring  all  its  pencils  and  chisels, 
and  commerce  is  going  to  bring  all  its  masts,  and  re- 
ligion is  going  to  bring  all  its  altars  and  towers,  and 
put  them  down  at  the  feet  of  Him  on  whose  vesture 
and  on  whose  thigh  are  written,  "  King  of  kings, 
Lord  of  lords."  Italy  for  pictures,  France  for  man- 
ners, Germany  for  scholarship,  the  United  States  for 
God. 


CHAPTER  LXII. 

THE   CHRISTIANIZED    VOTE. 

Look  at  it — the  sacred  chest  of  the  ancients.  It 
was  about  five  feet  long,  three  feet  wide  and  three  feet 
high.  It  was  within  and  without  of  pure  gold.  On 
the  top  of  it  stood  two  angels  facing  each  other  with 
outspread  wings.  In  that  sacred  box  was  the  law, 
and  there  were  in  it  a  great  many  precious  stones. 
With  that  box  went  the  fate  of  the  nation.  Carried 
in  front  of  the  host,  the  waters  of  the  Jordan  parted. 
Divinely  charged,  costlv,  precious,  momentous  box. 
No  unholy  hands  might  lay  hold  of  it.  It  was  called 
the  ark  of  the  covenant.  But  you  will  understand  it 
was  a  box,  the  most  precious  box  of  the  ages. 
Where  is  it  now  ?  Gone  forever.  Not  a  crypt  of 
church  or  museum  of  the  world  has  a  fragment  of  it. 

But  is  not  this  nation  God's  chosen  people  ?  Have 
we  not  passed  through  the  Red  Sea?  Have  we  not 
been  led  with  a  pillow  of  fire  by  night  ?  Has  this 
nation  no  ark  of  the  covenant?  Yes.  The  ballot- 
box,  the  sacred  chest  of  the  nation,  the  ark  of  the 
American  covenant. 

In  it  is  the  law,  in  it  is  the  divine  and  the  human 
will,  in  it  is  the  fate  of  the  nation.  Carried  in  front 
of  our  host  again  and  again,  the  waters  of  national 
trouble  have  parted.  Mighty  ark  of  the  covenant, 
the  American  ballot-box !  It  is  a  very  old  box. 

In    Athens,  long   before   the   art   of  printing,  the 

633 


634  THE   CHRISTIANIZED   VOTE. 

people  dropped  pebbles  into  it  to  give  expression  to 
their  sentiments.  After  that,  beans  were  dropped 
into  it — a  white  bean  for  the  affirmative,  a  black  bean 
for  the  negative.  After  that  when  they  wished  to 
vote  a  man  out  of  citizenship  they  would  write  his 
name  upon  a  shell  and  drop  that  into  the  box. 

O'Connell  and   Grote  and   Cobden  and  Macaulav 

J 

and  Gladstone  fought  great  battles  in  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  ballot-boxes  in  England,  and  to-day  it  is 
one  of  the  fastnesses  of  that  nation.  It  is  one  of  the 
corner-stones  of  our  government.  It  is  older  than 
the  constitution.  In  it  is  our  national  safety.  Tell 
me  what  will  be  the  fate  of  the  American  ballot-box, 
the  ark  of  the  American  covenant,  and  I  will  tell  you 
what  will  be  the  fate  of  this  nation.  Give  the  people 
once  a  year  or  once  in  four  years  an  opportunity  to 
express  their  political  sentiments,  and  you  practically 
avoid  insurrection  and  revolution. 

Either  give  them  the  ballot,  or  they  will  take  the 
sword.  Without  the  ballot-box  there  can  be  no  free 
republican  institutions.  Milton  visiting  in  Italy 
noticed  that  on  the  sides  of  Vesuvius  gardeners  and 
farmers  were  at  work  while  the  volcano  was  in  erup- 
tion, and  he  asked  them  if  they  were  safe.  "Yes," 
said  the  farmers  and  the  gardeners,  "  it  is  safe ;  all 
the  danger  is  before  the  eruption ;  then  come 
earthquake  and  terror,  but  just  as  soon  as  the  volcano 
begins  to  pour  forth  lava  we  all  feel  at  rest."  It  is 
the  suppression  of  political  sentiment,  the  suppres- 
sion of  public  opinion,  that  makes  moral  earthquake 
and  national  earthquake.  Let  public  opinion  pour 
forth,  and  that  gives  satisfaction,  and  that  gives  peace, 
and  that  gives  permanency  to  good  government. 
And  yet,  though  the  ballot-box  is  the  sacred  chest 


THE   CHRISTIANIZED   VOTE,  635 

and  the  ark  of  the  American  covenant,  you  know  as 
well  as  I  know,  it  has  its  sworn  antagonists. 

Ignorance  is  a  mighty  foe.  Other  things  being 
equal,  the  more  intelligence  a  man  has  the  better  he 
is  qualified  to  exercise  the  right  of  suffrage.  You 
have  been  ten,  fifteen,  twenty,  thirty  years  studying 
American  institutions,  you  have  canvassed  all  the 
great  questions  about  tariff  and  home  rule  and  all 
the  educational  questions,  and  everything  in  Amer- 
ican politics  you  are  well  acquainted  with.  You 
consider  yourself  competent  to  cast  a  vote  ift  No- 
vember, and  you  are  competent.  You  will  take  your 
position  in  the  line  of  electors,  you  will  wait  for 
your  term  to  come,  the  judge  of  election  will  an- 
nounce your  name,  you  will  cast  your  vote,  and  pass 
out.  Well  done. 

But  right  behind  you  there  will  come  a  man  who 
cannot  spell  the  name  of  controller,  or  attorney,  or 
mayor.  He  cannot  write,  or  if  he  can  write  he  uses  a 
small  "I"  for  the  personal  pronoun.  He  could  not  tell 
on  which  side  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains  Ohio  is. 
Educated  canary  birds,  educated  horses  know  more 
than  he.  He  will  cast  his  vote,  and  it  will  balance 
your  vote.  His  ignorance  is  as  mighty  as  your  intel- 
ligence. That  is  not  right.  All  men  of  fair  mind 
will  acknowledge  that  that  is  not  right.  Until  a  man 
can  read  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  calculate  the 
interest  on  the  American  debt,  and  know  the  differ- 
ence between  a  republican  form  of  government  and 
a  monarchy  or  a  despotism,  he  is  unfit  to  exercise 
the  right  of  suffrage  at  any  ballot-box  between  Key 
West  and  Alaska. 

In  1872,  in  England,  there  were  2,600,000  children 


636  THE  CHRISTIANIZED  VOTE. 

who  ought  to  have  been  in  school.  There  were  only 
1,333,000,  in  other  words,  about  fifty  per  cent.,  and 
of  the  fifty  per  cent,  not  more  than  five  per  cent,  got 
anything  worthy  the  name  of  an  education.  Now, 
take  that  foreign  ignorance,  and  add  it  to  our  Amer- 
ican ignorance,  and  there  will  be  thousands  and 
thousands  of  people,  who  are  no  more  qualified  to  ex- 
ercise the  right  of  suffrage  than  to  lecture  on  astron- 
omy. How  are  these  things  to  be  corrected  ?  By 
laws  .of  compulsory  education  well  executed.  I  go  in 
for  a  law  which,  after  giving  fair  warning  for  a  few 
years,  shall  make  ignorance  a  crime. 

There  is  no  excuse  for  ignorance  on  these  subjects 
in  this  land,  where  the  common  schools  make  knowl- 
edge as  free  as  the  fresh  air  of  heaven.  I  would  have 
a  board  of  examination  seated  beside  the  officers  of 
registration,  and  let  them  decide  whether  the  men 
who  come  up  to  vote  have  any  capacity  to  be  mon- 
archs  in  a  land  where  we  are  all  monarchs.  One  of 
the  most  awful  foes  of  the  American  ballot-box  tc-day 
it  popular  ignorance.  Educate  the  people,  give  them 
an  opportunity  to  know  and  understand  what  they 
do.  If  the}'  will  not  take  the  education,  deny  them 
the  vote. 

Another  powerful  enemy  of  this  sacred  chest,  the 
ark  of  the  American  covenant,  the  ballot-box,  is  spu- 
rious voting. 

In  i88o,  in  Brooklyn,  there  were  a  thousand  names 
recorded  of  persons  who  had  no  residence  here,  and 
if  there  were  a  thousand  attempted  frandulent  votes 
in  the  best  city  on  the  continent,  what  may  we  expect 
in  cities  not  so  fortunate?  What  a  grand  thing  is 
the  law  of  registration  !  Without  it  elections  in  this 
country  would  be  a  farce.  There  must  be  a  scrutiny 


THE    CHRISTIANIZED    VOTE.  637 

on  this  subject.  The  law  must  have  keenest  twist 
for  the  neck  of  repeaters.  Something  more  than 
slight  fine  and  short  imprisonment.  It  is  an  attempt 
at  the  assassination  of  the  republic,  when  a  man  at- 
tempts to  put  in  a  spurious  vote.  In  olden  times, 
when  men  laid  unholy  hands  on  the  ark  of  the  cove- 
nant they  dropped  down  dead.  Witness  Uzzah. 
And  when  men  attempt  to  put  unholy  hands  on  the 
American  ballot-box,  the  ark  of  the  American  cove- 
nant, they  deserve  extermination. 

Another  powerful  foe  of  this  sacred  chest  is 
intimidation. 

Corporations  sometimes  demand  that  their  em- 
ployes vote  in  this  and  that  way.  It  is  skillfully 
done.  It  is  not  positively  in  so  many  words  de- 
manded, but  the  employe  understands  he  will  be 
frozen  out  of  the  establishment  unless  he  votes  as  the 
firm  do.  So  you  can  go  into  factory  villages,  and 
having  found  out  the  politics  of  the  head  men  in  the 
factory,  you  can  tell  which  way  the  election  is  going. 
Now,  that  is  damnable.  If,  in  any  precinct  in  the 
United  States,  a  man  cannot  vote  as  he  pleases,  there 
is  something  awfully  wrong. 

How  do  you  treat  that  employe  who  votes  differ- 
ently from  what  you  do?  Oh,  you  say  you  do  not 
interfere  with  his  right  of-  suffrage.  But  you  call 
him  into  your  private  office,  and  you  find  fault  with 
his  work,  and  after  a  while  you  tell  him  there  is  an 
uncle,  or  an  aunt,  or  a  niece,  or  a  nephew  that  must 
have  that  position.  You  do  not  say  it  is  because  he 
voted  this  or  that  way,  but  he  knows,  and  God  knows 
it  is.  If  that  man  has  given  to  you  in  hard  work  an 
equivalent  for  the  wages  you  pay  him,  you  have  no 
right  to  ask  anything  else  of  him.  He  sold  you  his 


THE   CHRISTIANIZED   VOTE. 

work ;  he  did  not  sell  you  his  political  or  religious 
principles.  But  you  know  as  well  as  I  do  there  is 
sometimes  on  that  sacred  chest,  the  ark  of  the  Amer- 
ican covenant,  a  shadow  corporate  or  monopolistic. 

I  do  not  wonder  at  the  vehemence  of  Lord  Chief- 
Justice  Holt,  of  England,  when  he  said:  "Let  the 
people  vote  fairly.  Interference  with  a  man's  vote  is 
in  behalf  of  this  or  that  party.  I  give  you  notice 
that  if  an  offender  against  the  law  comes  before  me,  I 
will  charge  the  jury  to  make  him  pay  well  for  it." 
No  shadow  plutocratic,  or  mobocratic,  or  capitalistic. 
Every  man  voting  in  his  own  way— God  and  his  own 
conscience  the  only  dictator. 

Another  powerful  foe  of  that  sacred  chest,  the  ark 
of  the  American  covenant,  the  ballot-box,  is  bribery. 

You  know  something  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  dollars  that  were  expended  to  carry  Indiana  in 
1880.  You  know  something  of  the  vast  sums  of 
money  expended  in  Brooklyn  and  New  York  in 
other  years  to  carry  elections.  Bribery  is  one  of  the* 
disgraces  of  this  country.  It  is  often  the  case  that  a 
man  is  nominated  for  office  with  reference  to  his 
capacity  to  provide  money  for  the  elections  or  with 
reference  to  his  capacity  to  command  money  from 
others.  You  know  the  names  of  men  who  have  at 
different  times  gone  into  the  Gubernatorial  chair  or 
Congressional  office  buying  their  way  all  through.  I 
tell  you  no  news.  Your  patriotic  heart  has  been 
pained  again  and  again  with  it. 

Very  often  it  is  not  money  that  bribes,  but  it  is 
office.  "You  make  me  President  and  I'll  make  you 
Secretary  of  State,  or  Attorney-General,  or  some- 
thing else;  you  make  me  Governor  and  I'll  make 
you  Surveyor-General ;  you  make  me  Mayor  and  I'll 


v   THE    CHRISTIANIZED    VOTE.  639 

put  you  on  the  Water  Board ;  you  give  me  position 
and  I'll  give  you  position."  That  is  the  form  of  the 
bribe  often  and  often  in  these  great  cities.  So  it  is 
often  the  case  that  by  the  time  a  man  comes  to  an 
office  to  which  he  has  been  elected,  he  is  from  the 
crown  of  head  to  the  sole  of  foot  mortgaged  with 
pledges,  and  the  man  who  goes  to  Albany  or  to 
Washington  to  get  an  office  is  applying  for  some 
position  which  was  given  away  three  months  before 
the  election.  Two  long  lines  of  worm  fence,  one 
worm  fence  reaching  to  Albany,  and  the  other  to 
Washington,  and  there  a  great  many  citizens  astride 
the  fence,  and  they  are  equally  poised,  and  they  are 
waiting  to  see  on  which  side  there  is  most  emolu- 
ment, and  on  this  side  they  get  down.  But  bribery 
kicks  both  ways.  It  kicks  the  man  that  offers  it,  and 
the  man  that  takes  it.  Bribery  to-day  you  will 
admit  to  be  one  of  the  mightiest  foes  of  the  Ameri- 
can ballot-box. 

Another  great  enemy  of  that  sacred  chest  is  def- 
amation of  character. 

Can  you  find  out  from  the  newspapers  when  two 
men  are  in  office,  which  is  the  best?  How  often  in 
the  autumnal  elections  the  good  man  is  denounced 
and  the  bad  man  applauded,  so  that  you  can  come 
sometimes  to  no  just  opinion  as  to  who  is  the  best 
man,  and  there  are  hundreds  and  thousands  of  elect- 
ors who  go  up  to  vote  so  utterly  befogged  they  know 
not  what  they  do.  Is  not  that  a  fearful  influence  to 
be  brought  Upon  the  ballot-box  of  this  country?  It 
has  been  so  ever  since  the  foundation  of  this  govern- 
ment. Defamation  of  character. 

Thomas  Paine  writes  Washington  a  letter,  and  pub- 
lishes it,  saying  :  "  Treacherous  in  all  private  friend- 


640  THE   CHRISTIANIZED   VOTE. 

ship  and  a  hypocrite  in  public  morals,  the  world  will 
be  puzzled  to  know  whether  we  had.  better  call  you 
an  apostate  or  an  impostor,  and  whether  you  aban- 
doned good  morals,  or  never  had  any."  That  is 
Thomas  Paine's  opinion  of  George  Washington. 

John  Quincy  Adams  declared  that  he  was  solaced 
.in  regard  to  the  scandals  and  anathemas  inflicted  upon 
him  by  the  fact  that  his  father,  John  Adams,  had  to 
go  through  the  same  process,  and  John  Quincy 
Adams  declared  he  really  thought  in  that  present 
election  there  were  men  who  gave  their  entire  time 
to  manufacturing  falsehood  in  regard  to  him.  Martin 
Van  Buren  was  al  wavs  pictorialized  as  a  rat.  Thomas 
H.  Benton  and  Amos  Kendall  were  always  pictorial- 
ized as  robbers  with  battering-rams  breaking  in  the 
door  of  the  United  States  Bank. 

On  the  day  on  which  Thomas  Jefferson  was  inau- 
gurated President  of  the  United  States,  March  4th, 
1801,  the  following  appeared  in  the  Sentinel,  of  Bos- 
ton :  "  Monumental  inscription.  Yesterday  expired, 
deeply  regretted  by  millions  of  grateful  Americans, 
and  by  all  good  men,  the  Federal  Administration  of 
the  Government  of  the  United  States,  animated  by 
Washington,  Adams,  Hamilton,  Knox,  Pickering, 
McHenry,  Marshall  and  Stoddard  ;  aged  twelve  years. 
Its  death  was  occasioned  by  the  secret  arts  and  open 
violence  of  foreign  and  domestic  demagogues.  As 
one  tribute  of  gratitude  in  these  times,  this  monument 
to  the  talents  and  services  of  the  deceased  is  raised 
by  the  Sentinel."  Under  such  defamation  as  that 
Thomas  Jefferson  went  into  office. 

My  father  told  me  that  when  Andrew  Jackson  was 
running  for  President  of  the  United  States,  the 
whole  land  was  flooded  with  coffin  handbills — pic- 


.  THE   CHRISTIANIZED   VOTE.  641 

tures  of  six  dead  men,  in  allusion  to  the  six  deserters 
whom  Andrew  Jackson  had  had  shot,  and  all  the 
pictorials  of  those  times  represented  Jackson  as  tak- 
ing his  office  from  the  hand  of  the  devil. 

I  saw  a  few  summers  ago  at  Put-in-Bay,  Ohio,  in  a 
museum,  a  prominent  paper  of  1844,  which  spoke  of 
Henry  Clay  as  a  gambler,  a  libertine,  and  a  murderer ; 
and  the  manner  in  which  he  was  defamed  and  the 
outrages  which  were  heaped  upon  him  may  be  well 
guessed  from  Mr.  Clay's  eulogy  of  his  native  State, 
Kentucky.  He  said :  "  When  I  seemed  to  be 
assailed  by  all  the  rest  of  the  world,  she  interposed 
her  broad  and  impenetrable-  shield,  repelled  the 
poisoned  shafts  that  were  aimed  for  my  destruction, 
and  vindicated  my  good  name  from  every  malignant 
and  unfounded  aspersion." 

Defamation !  It  is  the  curse  of  the  American 
ballot-box.  Just  as  soon  as  in  the  great  cities  a  man 
is  put  up  for  office  he  is  made  the  target.  The  fact 
that  he  is  up  is  prima  facie  evidence  that  he  must  be 
brought  down.  His  public  life,  and  his  private  life, 
are  scrutinized,  aud  all  the  electric  lights  are  turned 
on.  How  often  it  is  that  men  have  gone  down  under 
such  things.  In  every  autumnal  election  the  air  is 
filled  with  carrion  crows  scenting  carcasses.  Caw ! 
Caw  !  Caw  !  There  are  newspapers  in  the  United 
States  that  in  the  great  autumnal  elections  take  wild 
license  for  liberty.  They  are  filled  with  calumny. 
The  editorial  columns  of  such  papers  reek  with  it ; 
their  columns  are  stuffed  with  it.  There  are  news- 
papers in  the  United  States  which,  in  the  great 
popular  elections,  breakfast,  and  dine,  and  sup  on 
indecency,  They  wallow  in  it.  Swine  in  the  mire. 
They  give  more  for  one  quill  of  filth  than  a  whole 

4* 


642  THE   CHRISTIANIZED   VOTE. 

hogshead  of  decent  product.  There  are  in  these 
great  autumnal  elections  men  sitting  in  editorial 
chairs  who  write  with  a  quill,  not  plucked  from  the 
stupid  goose,  or  the  sublime  eagle,  but  from  a  turkey 
buzzard !  Ghouls !  Ghouls !  They  tip  the  city 
sewer  into  their  editorial  inkstands.  Defamation  of 
character  is  one  of  the  curses  of  the  American  ballot- 
box  to-day.  In  your  great  presidential  elections  who 
can  tell  from  what  he  reads  who  is  the  man  he  ought 
to  vote  for  ?  Bad  men  sometimes  applauded,  good 
men  denounced. 

Another  powerful  foe  ol  the  sacred  chest,  the 
ark  of  the  American  covenant,  the  ballot-box,  is  the 
rowdy  and  drunken  caucus. 

The  ballot-box  does  not  give  any  choice  to  a  man 
when  the  nominations  are  made  in  the  back  part  of  a 
groggery.  When  the  elector  comes  up  he  has  to 
choose  between  two  evils.  In  some  of  the  cities  men 
have  come  to  the  ballot-box  to  vote,  and  have  found 
both  names  such  a  scaly,  greasy,  and  stenchful  crew 
they  had  no  choice.  You  say  vote  for  somebody 
outside.  Then  they  throw  away  their  vote.  Chris- 
tian men  of  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  honorable  men, 
patriotic  men,  go  and  take  possession  of  the  caucuses. 
First  having  saturated  your  pocket  handkerchief  with 
cologne  or  some  other  disinfectant,  go  down  to  the 
caucus  and  take  possession  of  it  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord  God  Almighty  and  the  American  people, 
though  after  you  come  back  you  should  have  to 
hang  your  hat  and  coat  on  a  line  in  the  back  yard 
for  ventilation. 

In  some  of  the  States  politics  have  got  so  low 
that  the  nominees  no  more  need  good  morals  than 
they  do  a  bath-tub.  Snatch  the  ballot-box  from  such 


THE   CHRISTIANIZED   VOTE.  643 

men.  Where  is  the  David  who  will  go  forth  and 
bring  the  ark  of  the  covenant  back  from  Kirjath- 
jearim?  Do  you  not  think  politics  have  got  to  a 
pretty  low  ebb  in  our  day  when  a  Tweed  could  be 
sent  to  the  Legislature  of  New  York,  and  a  John 
Morrissey,  the  prince  of  gamblers,  could  be  sent'  to 
the  American  Congress  ? 

Now,  how  are  these  things  to  be  remedied  ?  Some 
say  by  a  property  qualification.  They  say  that  after 
a  man  gets  a  certain  amount  of  property — a  certain 
amount  of  real  estate — he  is  financially  interested  in 
good  government,  and  he  becomes  cautious  and  con- 
servative. I  reply,  a  property  qualification  would 
shut  off  from  the  ballot-box  a  great  many  of  the  best 
men  in  this  land.  Literary  men  are  almost  always 
poor.  A  pen  is  a  good  implement  to  make  the  world 
better,  but  it  is  a  very  poor  implement  to  get  a  live- 
lihood ordinarily.  I  have  known  scores  of  literary 
men  who  never  owned  a  foot  of  ground,  and  never 
will  own  a  foot  of  ground  until  they  get  under  it. 
Professors  of  colleges,  teachers  of  schools,  editors  of 
newspapers,  ministers  of  religion,  qualified  in  every 
possible  way  to  vote,  yet  no  worldly  success.  There 
has  been  many  a  man  who  has  not  had  a  house  on 
earth  who  will  have  a  mansion  in  heaven. 

There  are  many  who,  through  accidents  of  fortune, 
have  come  to  great  success  while  they  are  profound 
in  their  stupidity,  as  profound  in  their  stupidity  as  a 
man  of  large  fortune  with  whom  I  was  crossing  the 
ocean,  who  told  me  he  was  going  to  see  the  dykes  of 
Scotland !  When  a  member  of  my  family  asked  a 
lady,  on  her  return  from  Europe,  if  she  had  seen 
Mont  Blanc,  she  replied:  "Well,  really,  I  don't 
know  ;  is  that  in  Europe  ?"  Ignorance  by  the  square 


644  THE  CHRISTIANIZED  VOTE. 

foot.  Property  qualification  will  not  do.  The  only 
way  these  evils  will  be  eradicated,  will  be  by  more 
thorough  legal  defence  of  the  ballot-box  and  a  more 
thorough  moralization  and  Christianization  of  the 
people.  That  ark  of  the  covenant  was  carried  into 
captivity  to  Kirjath-jearim,  but  one  day  the  people 
hooked  oxen  to  a  cart,  and  they  put  this  ark  on  the 
cart,  and  the  cart  was  taken  to  Jersualem — the  ark  of 
the  covenant  coming  with  the  shouting  and  thanks- 
giving of  the  people.  And  though  the  American 
ballot-box,  the  ark  of  the  American  covenant,  our 
sacred  chest,  has  been  carried  again  and  again  into 
captivity  by  fraud  and  iniquity  and  spurious  voting, 
I  believe  it  will  be  brought  back  yet  by  prayer  and 
by  Christian  consecration,  and  will  be  set  down  in 
the  midst  of  the  temple  of  Christian  patriotism. 
Whose  responsibility  ?  Yours  and  mine. 


CHAPTER  LXIII. 

CAPITAL  AND    LABOR. 

"  Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so 
to  them." — MATT.  7:  12. 

The  greatest  war  the  world  has  ever  seen  is 
between  capital  and  labor.  The  strife  is  not  like  that 
which  in  history  is  called  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 
for  it  is  a  war  of  centuries,  it  is  a  war  of  five  conti- 
nents, it  is  a  war  hemispheric.  The  middle  classes 
in  this  country,  upon  whom  the  nation  has  depended 
for  holding  the  balance  of  power  and  for  -acting  as 
mediators  between  the  two  extremes,  are  diminish- 
ing, and  if  things  go  on  at  the  same  ratio  as  they  are 
now  going;  it  will  not  be  very  long  before  there  will 
be  no  middle  class  in  this  country,  but  all  will  be  very 
rich  or  very  poor,  princes  or  paupers,  and  the  coun- 
try will  be  given  up  -to  palaces  and  hovels.  The 
antagonistic  forces  are  closing  in  upon  each  other. 
The  telegraphic  operators'  strikes,  the  railroad  em- 
ployes' strikes,  the  Pennsvlvania  miners'  strikes,  the 
movements  of  the  boycotters  and  the  dynamiters  are 
only  skirmishes  before  a  general  engagement,  or,  if 
you  prefer  it,  escapes  through  the  safety-valves  of  an 
imprisoned  force  which  promises  the  explosion  of 
society.  You  may  pooh-pooh  it ;  you  may  say  that 
this  trouble,  like  an  angry  child,  will  cry  itself  to 
sleep;  you  may  belittle  it  by  calling  it  Fourierism, 
or  Socialism,  or  St.  Simonism,  or  Nihilism,  or  Com- 

645 


646  CAPITAL   AND    LABOR. 

munism  ;  but  that  will  not  hinder  the  fact  that  it  is 
the  mightiest,  the  darkest,  the  most  terrific  threat  of 
this  century. 

M* 

All  attempts  at  pacification  have  been  dead  failures, 
and  monopoly  is  more  arrogant,  and  the  trades-unions 
more  bitter.  "  Give  us  more  wages,"  cry  the  em- 
ployes. "  You  shall  have  less,"  say  the  capitalists. 
"  Compel  us  to  do  fewer  hours  of  toil  in  a  day." 
"  You  shall  toil  more  hours,"  say  the  others.  "  Then, 
under  certain  conditions,  we  will  not  work  at  all," 
say  these.  "  Then  you  shall  starve,"  say  those,  and 
the  workmen  gradually  using  up  that  which  they  ac- 
cumulated in  better  times,  unless  there  be  some 
radical  change,  we  shall  have  soon  in  this  country 
three  million  hungry  men  and  women.  Now  three 
million  hungry  people  cannot  be  kept  quiet.  All  the 
enactments  of  legislatures  and  all  the  constabularies 
of  the  cities,  and  all  the  army  and  navy  of  the  United 
States,  cannot  keep  three  million  hungry  people 
quiet.  What  then?  Will  this  war  between  capital 
and  labor  be  settled  by  human  wisdom?  Never! 
The  brow  of  the  one  becom.es  more  rigid,  the  fist  of 
the  other  more  clenched. 

But  that  which  human  wisdom  cannot  achieve  will 
be  accomplished  by  Christianity  if  it  be  given  full 
sway.  You  have  heard  of  medicines  so  powerful 
that  one  drop  would  stop  a  disease  and  restore  a 
patient ;  and  I  have  to  tell  you  that  one  drop  of  my 
text  properly  administered  will  stop  all  these  woes  of 
society  and  give  convalescence  and  complete  health 
to  all  classes.  "  Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men 
should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them." 

I  shall  first  show  you  how  this  quarrel  between 
monopo!5*  and  hard  work  cannot  be  stopped,  and 


CAPITAL   AND    LABOR.  647 

then  I  will  show  you  how  this  controversy  will  be 
settled. 

In  the  first  place,  there  will  come  no  pacification  to 
this  trouble  through  an  outcry  against  rich  men  merely 
because  they  are  rich.  There  is  no  member  of  a  trades- 
union  on  earth  that  would  not  be  rich  if  he  could  be. 
Sometimes  through  a  fortunate  invention,  or  through 
some  accident  of  prosperity,  a  man  who  had  nothing 
comes  to  large  estate,  and  we  see  him  arrogant  and 
supercilious,  and  taking  people  by  the  throat  just  as 
other  people  took  him  by  the  throat.  There  is  some- 
thing very  mean  about  human  nature  when  it  comes 
to  the  top.  But  it  is  no  more  a  sin  to  be  rich  than  it 
is  a  sin  to  be  poor.  There  are  those  who  have 
gathered  great  estate  through  fraud,  and  then  there 
are  millionaires  who  have  gathered  their  fortune 
through  foresight  in  regard  to  changes  in  the 
markets,  and  through  brilliant  business  faculty,  and 
every  dollar  of  their  estate  is  as  honest  as  the  dollar 
which  the  plumber  gets  for  mending  a  pipe,  or  the 
mason  gets  for  building  a  wall.  There  are  those  who 
are  kept  in  poverty  because  of  their  own  fault.  They 
might  have  been  well  off,  but  they  smoked  or  chewed 
up  their  earnings,  or  they  lived  beyond  their  means, 
while  others  on  the  same  wages  and  on  the  same 
salaries  went  on  to  competency.  I  know  a  man  who 
is  all  the  time  complaining  of  his  poverty  and  crying 
out  against  rich  men,  while  he  himself  keeps  two 
dogs,  and  chews  and  smokes,  and  is  filled  to  the  chin 
with  whisky  and  beer! 

Micawber  said  to  David  Copperfield :  "Copper- 
field,  my  boy,  one  pound  income,  twenty  shillings 
and  sixpence  expenses;  result,  misery.  But,  Copper- 
field,  my  boy,  one  pound  income,  expenses  nineteen 


648  CAPITAL  AND    LABOR. 

shillings  and  sixpence;  result,  happiness."  And  there 
are  vast  multitudes  of  people  who  are  kept  poor  be- 
cause they  are  the  victims  of  their  o\vn  improvidence. 
It  is  no  sin  to  be  rich,  and  it  is  no  sin  to  be  poor.  1 
protest  against  this  outcry  which  I  hear  against  those 
who,  through  economy,  and  self-denial,  and  assiduity, 
have  come  to  large  fortune.  This  bombardment 
of  commercial  success  will  never  stop  this  quarrel 
between  capital  and  labor. 

Neither  will  the  contest  be  settled  by  cynical  and 
unsympathetic  treatment  of  the  laboring  classes. 
There  are  those  who  speak  of  them  as  though  they 
were  only  cattle  or  draught  horses.  Their  nerves 
are  nothing,  their  domestic  comfort  is  nothing,  their 
happiness  is  nothing.  They  have  no  more  sympathy 
for  them  than  a  hound  has  for  a  hare,  or  a  hawk  for 
a  hen,  or  a  tiger  for  a  calf.  When  Jean  Valjean,  the 
greatest  hero  of  Victor  Hugo's  writings,  after  a  life 
of  suffering  and  brave  endurance,  goes  into  incarce- 
ration and  death,  they  clap  the  book  shut,  and  say: 
'•Good  for  him  !"  They  stamp  their  feet  with  indig- 
nation and  say  just  the  opposite  of  "Save  the  work- 
ing classes."  They  have  all  their  sympathies  with 
Shy  lock,  and  not  with  Antonio  and  Portia.  They 
are  plutocrats,  and  their  feelings  are  infernal.  Thev 
are  filled  with  irritation  and  irascibility  on  this  sub- 
ject. To  stop  this  awful  embroglio  between  capital 
and  labor  they  will  lift  not  so  much  as  the  tip  end  of 
the  little  finger. 

Neither  will  there  be  anv  pacification  of  this  angry 
controversy  through  violence.  God  never  blessed 
murder.  The  poorest  use  you  can  put  a  man  to  is  to 
kill  him.  Blow  up  to-morrow  all  the  country-seats  on 
the  banks  of  the  Hudson,  and  all  the  fine  houses  on 


CAPITAL  AND   LABOR.  649 

Madison  Square,  and  Brooklyn  Heights,  and  Bunker 
Hill,  and  Rittenhouse  Square,  and  Beacon  Street,  and 
all  the  bricks  and  timber  and  stone  will  just  fall  back 
on  the  bare  head  of  American  labor.  The  worst 
enemies  of  the  working  classes  in  the  United  States 
and  Ireland  are  their  demented  coadjutors.  Assas- 
sination— the  assassination  of  Lord  Frederick  Caven- 
dish and  Mr.  Burke  in  Phcenix  Park,  Dublin,  Ireland, 
in  the  attempt  to  avenge  the  wrongs  of  Ireland,  only 
turned  away  from  that  afflicted  people  millions  of 
sympathizers.  The  recent  attempt  to  blow  up  the 
House  of  Commons,  in  London,  had  only  this  effect : 
to  throw  out  of  employment  tens  of  thousands  of  in- 
nocent Irish  people  in  England. 

In  this  country  the  torch  put  to  factories  that  have 
discharged  hands  for  good  or  bad  reason ;  obstruc- 
tions on  the  rail-track  in  front  of  midnight  express 
trains  because  the  offenders  do  not  like  the  president 
of  the  company  ;  strikes  on  shipboard  the  hour  they 
were  going  to  sail,  or  in  printing-offices  the  hour  the 
paper  was  to  go  to  press,  or  in  mines  the  day  the  coal 
was  to  be  delivered,  or  on  house  scaffoldings  so  the 
builder  fails  in  keeping  his  contract — all  these  are 
only  a  hard  blow  on  the  head  of  American  labor,  and 
cripple  its  arms,  and  lame  its  feet,  and  pierce  its 
heart.  Take  the  last  great  strike  in  America — the 
telegraph  operators'  strike — and  you  have  to  find 
that  the  operators  lost  four  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars' worth  of  wages,  and  have  had  poorer  wages 
ever  since.  Traps  sprung  suddenly  upon  employers, 
and  violence,  never  took  one  knot  out  of  the  knuckle 
of  toil,  or  put  one  farthing  of  wages  into  a  callous 
palm.  Barbarism  will  never  cure  the  wrongs  of 
civilization.  Mark  that ! 


650  CAPITAL   AND   LABOR. 

The  most  imperious  outrage  against  the  poor  and 
against  the  working  classes  will  yet  cower  before  the 
law.  Violence  and  contrary  to  the  law  will  never 
accomplish  anything,  but  righteousness  and  accord- 
ing to  law,  will  accomplish  it. 

Well,  if  this  controversy  between  Capital  and  La- 
bor cannot  be  settled  by  human  wisdom,  if  to-day 
Capital  and  Labor  stand  with  their  thumbs  on  each 
other's  throat — as  they  do — it  is  time  for  us  to  look 
somewhere  else  for  relief,  and  it  points  from  my  text 
roseate  and  jubilant,  and  puts  one  hand  on  the  broad- 
cloth shoulder  of  Capital,  and  puts  the  other  hand  on 
the  homespun-covered  shoulder  of  Toil,  and  says, 
with  a  voice  that  will  grandly  and  gloriously  settle 
this,  and  settle  everything,  "  Whatsoever  ye  would 
that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them." 
That  is,  the  lady  of  the  household  will  say :  "  I  must 
treat  the  maid  in  the  kitchen  just  as  I  would  like  to 
be  treated  if  I  were  downstairs  and  it  were  my  work 
to  wash,  and  cook,  and  sweep,  and  it  were  the  duty 
of  the  maid  in  the  kitchen  to  preside  in  this  parlor." 
The  maid  in  the  kitchen  must  say  :  "  If  my  employer 
seems  to  be  more  prosperous  than  I,  that  is  no  fault 
of  hers ;  I  shall  not  treat  her  as  an  enemy.  I  will 
have  the  same  industry  and  fidelity  downstairs  as  I 
would  expect  from  my  subordinates  if  I  happened  to 
be  the  wife  of  a  silk  importer." 

The  owner  of  an  iron  mill,  having  taken  a  dose  of 
my  text  before  leaving  home  in  the  morning,  will  go 
into  his  foundry  and,  passing  into  what  is  called  the 
puddling-room,  he  will  see  a  man  there  stripped  to 
the  waist,  and  besweated  and  exhausted  with  the 
labor  and  the  toil,  and  he  will  say  to  him :  "  Why,  it 
.seems  to  be  very  hot  in  here.  You  look  very  much 


CAPITAL  AND   LABOR.  651 

exhausted.     I  hear  your  child  is  very  sick  with  scar- 
let fever.     If  you  want  your  wages  a  little  earlier 
this  week,  so  as  to  pay  the  nurse  and  get  the  medi 
cines,  just  come  into  my  office  any  time." 

After  awhile,  crash  goes  the  money-market,  and 
there  is  no  more  demand  for  the  articles  manufact- 
ured in  that  iron-mill,  and  the  owner  does  not  know 
what  to  do.  He  says,  "  Shall  I  stop  the  mill,  or  shall 
I  run  it  on  half-time,  or  shall  I  cut  down  the  men's 
wages?"  He  walks  the  floor  of  his  counting-room 
all  day,  hardly  knowing  what  to  do.  Toward  eve- 
ning he  calls  all  the  laborers  together.  They  stand 
all  around,  some  with  arms  akimbo,  some  with  folded 
arms,  wondering  what  the  boss  is  going  to  do  now. 
The  manufacturer  say s,  "  Men,  times  are  very  hard  ; 
I  don't  make  twenty  dollars  where  I  used  to  make 
one  hundred.  Somehow,  there  is  no  demand  now 
for  what  we  manufacture,  or  but  ver}-  little  demand. 
You  see  I  am  at  vast  expense,  and  I  have  called  you 
together  this  afternoon  to  see  what  you  would  advise. 
I  don't  want  to  shut  up  the  mill,  because  that  would 
force  you  out  of  work,  and  you  have  always  been 
very  faithful,  and  I  like  you,  and  you  seem  to  like 
me,  and  the  bairns  must  be  looked  after,  and  your 
wife  will  after  a  while  want  a  new  dress.  I  don't 
know  what  to  do." 

There  is  a  dead  halt  for  a  minute  or  two,  and  then 
one  of  the  workmen  steps  out  from  the  ranks  of  his 
fellows,  and  says :  "  Boss,  you  have  been  very  good 
to  us,  and  when  you  prospered  we  prospered,  and 
now  you  are  in  a  tight  place  and  I  am  sorry,  and  we 
have  got  to  sympathize  with  you.  I  don't  know 
how  the  others  feel,  but  I  propose  that  we  take  off 
twenty  per  cent,  from  our  wages,  and  then  when  the 


652  CAPITAL   AND   LABOR. 

times  get  good  you  will  remember  us  and  raise  them 
again."  The  workman  looks  around  to  his  com- 
rades, and  says :  "  Boys,  what  do  you  say  to  this? 
All  in  favor  of  my  proposition  will  say  aye."  "Aye! 
aye!  aye!"  shout  two  hundred  voices. 

But  the  mill  owner,  getting  in  some  new  ma- 
chinery, exposes  himself  very  much,  and  takes  cold, 
and  it  settles  intp  pneumonia,  and  he  dies.  In  the 
procession  to  the  tomb  are  all  the  workmen,  tears 
rolling  down  their  cheeks,  and  off  upon  the  ground; 
but  an  hour  before  the  procession  gets  to  the  ceme- 
tery the  wives  and  the  children  of  these  workmen 
are  at  the  grave  waiting  for  the  arrival  of  the  funeral 
pageant.  The  minister  of  religion  may  have  deliv- 
ered an  eloquent  eulogium  before  they  started  from 
the  house,  but  the  most  impressive  things  are  said 
that  day  by  the  working-classes  standing  around  the 
tomb. 

That  night  in  all  the  cabins  of  the  working-people 
where  they  have  family  prayers  the  widowhood  and 
the  orphanage  in  the  mansion  are  remembered.  No 
glaring  populations  look  over  the  iron  fence  of  the 
cemetery  ;  but,  hovering  over  the  scene,  the  benedic- 
tion of  God  and  man  is  coming  from  the  fulfilment  of 
the  Christlike  injunction,  "  Whatsoever  ye  would 
that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them." 

"  Oh,"  says  some  man  here,  "  that  is  all  Utopian, 
that  is  apocryphal,  that  is  impossible."  No.  Yester- 
dav  I  cut  out  of  a  paper  this :  "  One  of  the  pleasant- 
est  incidents  recorded  in  a  long  time  is  reported  from 
Sheffield,  England.  The  wages  of  the  men  in  the 
iron  works  at  Sheffield  are  regulated  by  a  board  of 
arbitration,  by  whose  decision  both  masters  and  men 
are  bound.  For  some  time  past  the  iron  and  steel 


CAPITAL  AND   LABOR.  653 

trade  has  been  extremely  unprofitable,  and  the  em- 
ployers can  not,  without  much  loss,  pay  the  wages 
fixed  by  the  board,  which  neither  employers  nor 
employed  have  the  power  to  change.  To  avoid  this 
difficulty,  the  workmen  in  one  of  the  largest  steel 
works  in  Sheffield  hit  upon  a  device  as  rare  as  it  was 
generous.  They  offered  to  work  for  their  employers 
one  week  without  any  pay  whatever.  How  much 
better  that  plan  is  than  a  strike  would  be." 

But  you  go  with  me  and  I  will  show  you — not 
so  far  off  as  Sheffield,  England — factories,  banking- 
houses,  storehouses,  and  costly  enterprises  where 
this  Christ-like  injunction  of  my  text  is  fully  kept, 
and  you  could  no  more  get  the  employer  to  practice 
an  injustice  upon  his  men,  or  the  men  to  conspire 
against  the  employer,  than  you  could  get  your  right 
hand  and  your  left  hand,  your  right  eye  and  your  left 
eye,  your  right  ear  and  your  left  ear,  into  physiolog- 
ical antagonism.  Now,  where  is  this  to  begin  ?  In 
our  homes,  in  our  stores,  on  our  farms — not  waiting 
for  other  people  to  do  their  duty.  Is  there  a  diverg- 
ence now  between  the  parlor  and  the  kitchen  ?  Then 
there  is  something  wrong,  either  in  the  parlor  or  the 
kitchen,  perhaps  in  both.  Are  the  clerks  in  your  store 
irate  against  the  firm?  Then  there  is  something 
wrong,  either  behind  the  counter,  or  in  the  private 
office,  or  perhaps  in  both. 

The  great  want  of  the  world  to-day  is  the  fulfil- 
ment of  this  Christ-like  injunction,  that  which  He 
promulgated  in  His  sermon  Olivetic.  All  the  polit- 
ical economists  under  the  arch  or  vault  of  the  heav- 
ens in  convention  for  a  thousand  years  cannot  settle 
this  controversy  between  monopoly  and  hard  work, 
between  capital  and  labor. 


654  CAPITAL  AND   LABOR. 

During  the  Revolutionary  war  there  was  a  heavy 
piece  of  timber  to  be  lifted,  perhaps  for  some  fortress, 
and  a  corporal  was  overseeing  the  work,  and  he  was 
giving  commands  to  some  soldiers  as  they  lifted : 
"  Heave  away  there  !  yo  heave  !  "  Well,  the  timber 
was  too  heavy  ;  they  could  not  get  it  up.  There  was 
a  gentleman  riding  by  on  a  horse,  and  he  stopped, 
and  said  to  this  corporal,  "  Why  don't  you  help  them 
lift?  That  timber  is  too  heavy  for  them  to  lift." 
"  No,"  he  said,  "  I  won't ;  I  am  a  corporal."  The 
gentleman  got  off  his  horse,  and  came  up  to  the 
place.  "  Now,"  he  said  to  the  soldiers,  "  all  together 
— yo  heave !  "  and  the  timber  went  to  its  place. 
"  Now,"  said  the  gentleman  to  the  corporal,  "  when 
you  have  a  piece  of  timber  too  heavy  for  the  men  to 
lift,  and  you  want  help,  you  send  to  your  commander- 
in-chief."  It  was  Washington.  Now,  that  is  about  all 
the  Gospel  I  know — the  Gospel  of  giving  somebody 
a  lift,  a  lift  out  of  darkness,  a  lift  out  of  earth  into 
heaven. 

"Oh,"  says  some  wiseacre ;  "talk  as  you  will,  the 
law  of  demand  and  supply  will  regulate  these  things 
until  the  end  of  time."  No,  they  will  not,  unless 
God  dies  and  the  batteries  of  the  Judgment  Day  are 
spiked,  and  Pluto  and  Proserpine,  king  and  queen  of 
the  infernal  regions,  take  full  possession  of  this  world. 
Do  you  know  who  Supply  and  Demand  are?  They 
have  gone  into  partnership,  and  they  propose  to 
swindle  this  earth,  and  are  swindling  it.  You  are 
drowning.  Supply  and  Demand  stand  on  the  shore, 
one  on  one  side,  the  other  on  the  other  side  of  the 
life-boat,  and  they  cry  out  to  you :  "Now,  you  pay 
us  what  we  ask  you  for  getting  you  to  shore,  or  go 
to  the  bottom  !"  If  you  can  borrow  $5,000  you  can 


CAPITAL  AND   LABOR.  655 

keep  from  failing  in  business.  Supply  and  Demand 
say:  "Now,  you  pay  us  exorbitant  usury,  or  you 
go  into  bankruptcy."  This  robber  firm  of  Supply 
and  Demand  say  to  you :  "The  crops  are  short. 
We  bought  up  all  the  wheat  and  it  is  in  our  bin. 
Now,  you  pay  our  price  or  starve."  That  is  your 
magnificent  law  of  supply  and  demand. 

Supply  and  Demand  own  the  largest  mill  on  earth, 
and  all  the  rivers  roll  over  their  wheel,  and  into  their 
hopper  they  put  all  the  men,  women  and  children 
they  can  shovel  out  of  the  centuries,  and  the  blood 
and  the  bones  redden  the  valley  while  the  mill  grinds. 
That  diabolic  law  of  supply  and  demand  will  yet  have 
to  stand  aside,  and  instead  thereof  will  come  the  law 
of  love,  the  law  of  co-operation,  the  law  of  kindness, 
the  law  of  sympathy,  the  law  of  Christ. 

Have  you  no  idea  of  the  coming  of  such  a  time  ? 
Then  you  do  not  believe  the  Bible.  All  the  Bible  is 
full  of  promises  on  this  subject,  and  as  the  ages  roll 
on  the  time  will  come  when  men  of  fortune  will  be 
giving  larger  sums  to  hu»manitarian  and  evangelistic 
purposes,  and  there  will  be  more  James  Lenoxes  and 
Peter  Coopers,  and  William  E.  Dodges,  and  George 
Peabodys.  As  that  time  comes  there  will  be  more 
parks,  more  picture-galleries,  more  gardens  thrown 
open  for  the  holiday  people  and  the  working-classes. 

I  was  reading  only  this  morning,  in  regard  to  a 
charge  that  had  been  made  in  England  against  Lam- 
beth Palace  that  it  was  exclusive,  and  that  charge 
demonstrated  the  sublime  fact  that  to  the  grounds  of 
that  wealthy  estate  eight  hundred  poor  families  have 
free  passes,  and  forty  croquet  companies  and  on  the 
half-day-holidays  four  thousand  poor  people  recline 
on  the  grass,  walk  through  the  paths,  and  sit  under  the 


656  CAPITAL   AND    LAKOK. 

trees.  That  is  Gospel — Gospel  on  the  wing,  Gospel 
out  of  doors  worth  just  as  much  as  indoors.  That 
time  is  going  to  come. 

That  is  only  a  hint  of  what  is  going  to  be.  The 
time  is  going  to  come  when,  if  you  have  anything  in 
your  house  worth  looking  at — pictures,  pieces  of 
sculpture — you  are  going  to  invite  me  to  come  and 
see  it,  you  are  going  to  invite  my  friends  to  come  and 
see  it,  and  you  will  say,  "  See  whafl  have  been  blessed 
with.  God  has  given  me  this,  and  so  far  as  enjoying 
it,  it  is  yours  also."  That  is  Gospel. 

In  crossing  the  Alleghany  Mountains  many  years 
ago  the  stage  halted,  and  Henry  Clay  dismounted 
from  the  stage,  and  went  out  on  a  rock  at  the  very 
verge  of  the  cliff,  and  he  stood  there  with  his  cloak 
wrapped  around  him,  and  he  seemed  to  be  listening 
for  something.  Some  one  said  to  him,  '  What  are 
you  listening  for?"  Standing  there  on  the  top  of 
the  mountain,  he  said :  "  I  am  listening  to  the  tramp 
of  the  footsteps  of  the  coming  millions  of  this  con- 
tinent." 

A  sublime  posture  for  an  American  statesman. 
You  and  I  to-day  stand  on  the  mountain  top  of 
privilege,  and  on  the  Rock  of  Ages,  and  we  look  off, 
and  we  hear  coming  from  the  future  the  happy  in- 
dustries, and  the  smiling  populations,  and  the  conse- 
crated fortunes,  and  the  innumerable  prosperities  of 
the  closing  nineteenth  and  the  opening  twentieth 
centuries. 

The  greatest  friend  of  capitalist  and  toiler,  and  the 
one  who  will  yet  bring  them  together  in  complete 
accord,  was  born  one  Christmas  night  while  the  cur- 
tains of  heaven  swung,  stirred  by  th£  wings  angelic. 
Owner  of  all  things — all  the  continents,  all  worlds, 


CAPITAL   AND    LABOR.  657 

and  all  the  islands  of  light.  Capitalist  of  immensity, 
crossing  over  to  our  condition.  Coming  into  our 
world,  not  by  gate  of  palace,  but  by  door  of  barn. 
Spending  His  first  night  amid  the  shepherds.  Gath- 
ering after  around  Him  the  fishermen  to  be  His  chief 
attendants.  With  adze,  and  saw,  and  chisel,  and  axe, 
and  in  a  carpenter-shop  showing  himself  brother  with 
the  tradesmen.  Owner  of  all  things,  and  yet  on  a 
hillock  back  of  Jerusalem  one  day  resigning  every- 
thing for  others,  keeping  not  so  much  as  a  shekel  to 
pay  for  His  obsequies,  by  charity  buried  in  the  sub- 
urbs of  a  city  that  had  cast  Him  out.  Before  the 
cross  of  such  a  capitalist,  and  such  a  carpenter,  all 
men  can  afford  to  shake  hands,  and  worship.  Here  is 
the  every  man's  Christ.  None  so  high  but  He  was 
higher.  None  so  poor  but  He  was  poorer.  At  His 
feet  the  hostile  extremes  will  yet  renounce  their  ani- 
mosities, and  countenances  which  have  glowered 
with  the  prejudices  and  revenge  of  centuries  shall 
brighten  with  the  smile  of  heaven  as  He  commands : 
"  Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you 
do  ye  even  so  to  them." 


CHAPTER  LXIV. 

MORAL   CHARACTER   OF   CANDIDATES. 

The  lightnings  and  earthquakes  united  their  forces 
to  wreck  a  mountain  of  Arabia  Petraea  in  olden  time, 
and  travelers  to-day  find  heaps  of  porphyry  and 
greenstone  rocks,  bowlder  against  bowlder,  the  re- 
mains of  the  first  law  library,  written,  not  on  parch- 
ment or  papyrus,  but  on  shattered  slabs  of  granite. 
The  corner-stones  of  all  morality,  of  all  wise  law,  of 
all  righteous  jurisprudence,  of  all  good  government, 
are  the  two  tablets  of  stone  on  which  were  written 
the  Ten  Commandments.  All  Roman  law,  all  French 
law,  all  English  law,  all  American  law  that  is  worth 
anything,  all  common  few,  civil  law,  criminal  law, 
martial  law,  law  of  nations,  were  rocked  in  the  cradle 
of  the  twentieth  chapter  of  Exodus.  And  it  would 
be  well  in  these  times  of  great  political  agitation  if 
the  newspapers  would  print  the  Decalogue  some  day 
in  place  ol  the  able  editorial. 

These  laws  are  the  pillars  of  society,  and  if  you  re- 
move one  pillar  you  damage  the  whole  structure.  I 
have  noticed  that  men  are  particularly  vehement 
against  sins  to  which  they  are  not  particularly 
tempted,  and  find  no  especial  wrath  against  sins  in 
which  they  themselves  indulge.  They  take  out  one 
gun  from  this  battery  of  ten  guns,  and  load  that,  and 
unlimber  that,  and  fire  that.  They  say,  "  This  is  an 
Armstrong  gun,  and  this  is  a  Krupp  gun,  and  this  is 

658 


MORAL  CHARACTER  OF  CANDIDATES.      659 

a  Nordensfeld  five-barreled  gun,  and  this  is  a  Gatling 
ten-barreled  gun,  and  this  is  a  Martigny  thirty-seven 
barreled  gun."  But  I  have  to  tell  them  that  they  are 
all  of  the  same  calibre,  and  that  they  shoot  from  eter- 
nity to  eternity. 

The  Decalogue  forbids  idolatry,  image  making, 
profanity,  maltreatment  of  parents,  Sabbath  desecra- 
tion, murder,  theft,  incontinence,  lying,  and  covetous 
ness.  This  is  the  Decalogue  by  which  you  and  I  will 
have  to  be  tried,  and  by  that  same  Decalogue  you  and 
1  must  try  candidates  for  office. 

Of  course  we  shall  not  find  anything  like  perfec- 
tion. If  we  do  not  vote  until  we  find  an  immaculate 
nominee  we  will  never  vote  at  all.  We  have  so  many 
faults  of  our  own  we  ought  not  to  be  censorious  or 
maledictory  or  hypercritical  in  regard  to  the  faults 
of  others. 

The  Christly  rule  is  as  appropriate  for  November 
as  any  other  month  in  the  year,  and  for  the  fourth 
year  as  for  the  three  preceding  years:  "Judge  not 
that  ye  be  not  judged,  for  with  what  measure  ye  mete 
it  shall  be  measured  to  you  again." 

Most  certainly  are  we  not  to  take  the  statement  of 
red-hot  partisanship  as  the  real  character  of  any  man. 
From  nearly  all  of  the  great  cities  of  this  land  I  re- 
ceive daily  or  weekly  newspapers,  sent  to  me  regu- 
larly and  in  compliment,  so  I  see  both  sides — I  see  all 
sides — and  it  is  most  entertaining,  and  my  regular 
amusement,  to  read  the  opposite  statements.  The 
one  statement  says  the  man  is  an  angel,  and  the  other 
says  he  is  a  devil ;  and  I  split  the  difference,  and  I 
find  him  half  way  between.  There  has  never  been 
an  honest  or  respectable  man  running  for  the  United 
States  Presidency  since  the  foundation  of  the  Amer- 


660     MORAL  CHARACTER  OF  CANDIDATES. 

ican  government,  if  we  may  believe  the  old  files  of 
newspapers  in  the  museums.  What  a  mercy  it  is 
that  they  were  not  all  hung  before  inauguration  day. 

I  warn  you  also  against  the  mistake  which  many 
are  making,  and  always  do  make,  of  applying  a  dif- 
ferent standard  of  character  for  those  in  high  place 
and  of  large  means,  from  the  standard  they  apply  for 
ordinary  persons.  However  much  a  man  may  have, 
and  however  high  the  position  he  gets,  he  has  no 
especial  liberty  given  him  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
Ten  Commandments.  A  great  sinner  is  no  more  to 
be  excused  than  a  small  sinner.  Do  not  charge  illus- 
trious defection  to  eccentricity,  or  chop  off  the  Ten 
Commandments  to  suit  especial  cases.  The  right  is 
everlastingly  right,  and  the  wrong  is  everlastingly 
wrong.  If  any  man  nominated  for  any  office  in  this 
city,  State  or  nation  differs  from  the  Decalogue,  do 
not  fix  up  the  Decalogue,  but  fix  him  up.  This  law 
must  stand,  whatever  else  may  fall. 

I  call  your  attention  also  to  the  fact  that  you  are 
all  aware  of,  that  the  breaking  of  one  commandment 
makes  it  the  more  easy  to  break  all  of  them,  and  the 
philosophy  is  plain.  Any  kind  of  sin  weakens  the 
conscience,  and  if  the  conscience  is  weakened,  that 
opens  the  door  for  all  kinds  of  transgression.  If,  for 
instance,  a  man  go  into  this  political  campaign  wield- 
ing scurrility  as  his  chief  weapon,  and  he  believes 
everything  bad  about  a  man,  and  believes  nothing 
good,  how  long  before  that  man  himself  will  get  over 
the  moral  depression?  Neither  in  time  nor  eternity. 
11  I  utter  a  falsehood  in  regard  to  a  man  I  may  dam- 
age him,  but  I  get  for  myself  tenfold  more  damage. 
That  is  a  gun  that  kicks. 

If,  for  instance,  a  man  be  profane,  under  provo- 


MORAL   CHARACTER   OF   CANDIDATES.  66 1 

cation  he  will  commit  any  crime.  I  say  under  provo- 
cation. For  if  a  man  will  maltreat  the  Lord  Almighty, 
would  he  not  maltreat  his  fellow-man?  If  a  man  be 
guilty  of  malfeasance  in  office,  he  will,  under  provo- 
cation, commit  any  sin.  He  who  will  steal,  will  lie, 
and  he  who  will  lie,  will  steal. 

If,  for  instance,  a  man  be  unchaste,  it  opens  the 
door  for  all  other  iniquity,  for  in  that  one  iniquity  he 
commits  theft  of  the  worst  kind,  and  covetousness  of 
the  worst  kind,  and  falsehood — pretending  to  be  de- 
cent when  he  is  not— and  maltreats  his  parents  by  dis- 
gracing their  name,  if  they  were  good.  Be  careful, 
therefore,  how  you  charge  that  sin  against  any  man 
either  in  high  or  low  place,  either  in  office  or  out  of 
office,  because  when  you  make  that  charge  against  a 
man  you  charge  him  with  all  villainies,  with  all  dis- 
gusting propensities,  with  all  rottenness. 

A  libertine  is  a  beast,  lower  than  the  vermin  that 
crawl  over  a  summer  carcass — lower  than  the  swine, 
for  the  swine  has  no  intelligence  to  sin  against.  Be 
careful,  then,  how  you  charge  that  against  any  man. 
You  must  be  so  certain  that  a  mathematical  demon- 
stration is  doubtful  as  compared  with  it. 

And,  then,  when  you  investigate  a  man  on  such 
subjects,  you  must  go  the  whole  length  of  investiga- 
tion, and  find  out  whether  or  not  he  has  repented. 
He  may  have  been  down  on  his  knees  before  God 
and  implored  the  divine  forgiveness,  and  he  may  have 
implored  the  forgiveness  of  society  and  the  forgive- 
ness of  the  world  ;  although  if  a  man  commit  that 
sin  at  thirty  or  thirty-five  years  of  age  there  is  not 
one  case  out  of  a  thousand  where  he  ever  repents. 
You  must  in  your  investigation  see  if  it  is  possible 
that  the  one  case  investigated  may  not  have  been  the 


662  MORAL   CHARACTER   OF   CANDIDATES. 

glorious  exception.  But  do  not  chop  off  the  seventh 
commandment  to  suit  the  case.  Do  not  change  Fair- 
banks' scale  to  suit  what  you  are  weighing  with  it. 
J)o  not  cut  off  a  yardstick  to  suit  the  dry  goods  you 
are  measuring.  Let  the  law  stand  and  never  tamper 
with  it. 

Above  all,  I  charge  you  do  not  join  in  the  cry  that 
I  have  heard — for  fifteen,  twenty  years  I  have  heard 
it — that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  purity.  If  you  make 
that  charge  you  are  a  foul-mouthed  scandalizer  of  the 
human  race.  You  are  a  leper.  Make  room  for  that 
leper!  When  a  man,  by  pen,  or  type  or  tongue,  ut- 
ters such  a  slander  on  the  human  race  that  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  purity,  1  know  right  away  that  that 
man  himself  is  a  walking  lazaretto,  a  reeking  ulcer, 
and  is  fit  for  no  society  better  than  that  of  devils 
damned.  We  may  enlarge  our  charities  in  such  a 
case,  but  in  no  such  case  let  us  shave  off  the  Ten 
Commandments.  Let  them  stand  as  the  everlasting 
defence  of  society  and  of  the  Church  of  God. 

The  committing  of  one  sin  opens  the  door  for  the 
commission  of  other  sins.  You  see  it  every  day. 
Those  Wall  Street  embezzlers,  those  bank  cashiers 
absconding  as  soon  as  they  are  brought  to  justice, 
develop  the  fact  that  they  were  in  all  kinds  of  sin. 
No  exception  to  the  rule.  They  all  kept  bad  com- 
pany, they  nearly  all  gamble,  they  all  went  to  places 
where  thev  ought  not.  Why?  The  commission  of 
the  one  sin  opened  the  gate  for  all  the  other  sins. 
Sins  go  in  flocks,  in  droves,  and  in  herds.  You  open 
the  door  for  one  sin,  that  invites  in  all  the  miserable 
segregation.  The  campaign  orators,  some  of  them, 
bombarding  the  suffering  candidates  all  the  week, 
think  no  wrong  in  riding  all  Sunday,  and  they  are 


MORAL   CHARACTER   OF   CANDIDATES.  663 

at  this  moment,  many  of  them,  in  the  political  head- 
quarters calculating  the  chances.  All  the  week  hurl- 
ing the  eighth  commandment  at  Mr.  Blaine,  the 
seventh  commandment  at  Mr.  Cleveland,  and  the 
ninth  commandment  at  Mr.  St.  John — what  are  they 
doing  with  the  fourth  commandment?  "  Remember 
the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy."  Breaking  it.  Is 
not  the  fourth  commandment  as  important  as  the 
eighth,  as  the  seventh,  as  the  ninth  ?  Some  of  these 
political  campaign  orators,  as  I  have  seen  them  re- 
ported, and  as  I  have  heard  in  regard  to  them,  bom- 
barding the  suffering  candidates  all  the  week,  yet 
tossing  the  name  of  God  from  their  lips  recklessly, 
guilty  of  profanity.  What  are  they  doing  with  the 
third  commandment?  Is  not  the  third  command- 
ment, which  says:  "Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name 
of  the  Lord  thy  God  in  vain,  for  the  Lord  will  not 
hold  him  guiltless  that  taketh  His  name  in  vain" — is 
not  the  third  commandment  as  important  as  the 
other  seven  ?  Oh  yes,  we  find  in  all  departments 
men  are  hurling  their  indignation  against  sins  per- 
haps to  which  they  are  not  especially  tempted— 
hurling  it  against  iniquity  toward  which  they  are  not 
particularly  drawn. 

I  have  this  book  for  my  authority  when  I  say  that 
the  man  who  swears,  or  the  man  who  breaks  the 
Sabbath  is  as  culpable  before  God  as  either  of  those 
candidates  is  culpable  if  the  things  charged  on  him 
are  true.  What  right  have  you  and  I  to  select  which 
commandment  we  will  keep,  and  which  we  will 
break?  Better  not  try  to  measure  the  thunderbolts 
of  the  Almighty,  saying  this  has  less  blaze,  this  has 
less  momentum.  Better  not  handle  the  guns,  better 
not  experiment  much  with  the  divine  ammunition. 


664  MORAL   CHARACTER   OF   CANDIDATES. 

Cicero  said  he  saw  the  Iliad  written  on  a  nut-shell, 
and  you  and  I  have  seen  the  Lord's  Prayer  written 
on  a  five-cent  piece  ;  but  the  whole  tendency  of  these 
times  is  to  write  the  Ten  Commandments  so  small 
nobody  can  see  them.  I  protest  this  day  against  the 
attempt  to  revise  the  Decalogue  which  was  given  on 
Mount  Sinai,  amid  the  blast  of  trumpets,  and  the 
cracking  of  the  rocks,  and  the  paroxysm  of  the  moun- 
tain of  Arabia  Petraea. 

.1  bring  up  the  candidates  for  city,  State,  and 
national  power — I  bring  them  up,  and  I  try  them  by 
this  Decalogue.  Of  course  they  are  imperfect.  We 
are  all  imperfect. 

We  say  things  we  ought  not  to  say,  we  do  things 
we  ought  not  to  do.  We  have  all  been  wrong,  we 
have  all  done  wrong.  But  I  shall  find  out  one  of  the 
candidates  who  comes,  in  my  estimation,  nearest  to 
obedience  of  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  I  will 
vote  for  him,  and  you  will  vote  for  him  unless  you 
love  God  less  than  your  party  ;  then  you  will  not 


CHAPTER   LXV. 

RULERS. 

The  morals  of  a  nation  seldom  rise  higher  than  the 
virtue  of  the  rulers.  Henry  VIII.  makes  impurity 
popular  and  national.  William  Wilberforce  gives 
moral  tone  to  a  whole  empire.  Sin  bestarred  and 
epauletted  makes  crime  respectable  and  brings  it  to 
canonization.  Malarias  arise  from  the  swamp  and 
float  upward,  but  moral  distempers  descend  from  the 
mountain  to  the  plain.  The  slums  only  disgust  men 
with  the  bestiality  of  crime,  but  dissolute  French 
court  or  corrupt  congressional  delegation  puts  a  pre- 
mium upon  iniquity.  Many  of  the  sins  of  the  world 
are  only  royal  exiles.  They  had  a  throne  once,  but 
they  have  been  turned  out,  and  they  come  down 
now  to  be  entertained  by  the  humble  and  the  insig- 
nificant. 

There  is  not  a  land  on  earth  which  has  so  many 
moral  men  in  authority  as  this  land.  There  is  not  a 
session  of  legislature,  or  Congress,  or  cabinet,  but  in 
it  are  thoroughly  Christian  men,  men  whose  hands 
would  consume  a  bribe,  whose  cheek  has  never  been 
flushed  with  intoxication,  whose  tongue  has  never 
been  smitten  of  blasphemy,  or  stung  of  a  lie ;  men 
whose  speeches  in  behalf  of  the  right  and  against  the 
wrong  remind  us  of  the  old  Scotch  Covenanters,  and 
the  defiant  challenge  of  Martin  Luther,  and  the  red 
lightning  of  Micah  and  Habakkuk.  These  times  are 

665 


666  RULERS. 

not  half  as  bad  as  the  times  that  are  gone.  I  judge 
so  from  the  fact  that  Aaron  Burr,  a  man  stuffed  with 
iniquity  until  he  could  hold  no  more,  the  debaucher 
of  the  debauched,  was  a  member  of  the  Legislature, 
then  Atto'rney-General,  then  a  Senator  of  the  United 
Sates,  then  Vice-President,  and  then  at  last  coming 
within  one  vote  of  the  highest  position  in  this  nation. 
I  judge  it  from  the  fact  that  more  than  a  half  century 
ago  the  Governor  of  this  State  disbanded  the  Legis- 
lature of  New  York  because  it  was  too  corrupt  to  sit 
in  council. 

There  is  a  tendency  in  our  time  to  extol  the  past  to 
the  disadvantage  of-  the  present,  and  I  suppose  that 
sixty  years  from  now  there  may  be  persons  who  witl 
represent  some  of  us  as  angels,  although  now  things 
are  so  unpromising.  But  the  iniquity  of  the  past  is 
no  excuse  for  the  public  wickedness  of  to-day,  and  so 
I  unroll  the  scroll  in  the  presence  of  this  assemblage. 
Those  who  are  in  editorial  chairs  and  in  pulpits  may 
not  hold  back  the  truth.  King  David  must  be  made 
to  feel  the  reproof  of  Nathan,  and  Felix  must  tremble 
before  Paul,  and  we  may  not  walk  with  muffled  feet 
lest  we  wake  up  some  big  sinner.  If  we  keep  back 
the  truth,  what  will  we  do  in  the  day  when  the  Lord 
rises  up  in  judgment,  and  we  are  tried  not  only  for 
what  we  have  said,  but  for  what  we  have  declined  to 
say? 

In  unrolling  the  scroll  of  public  wickedness,  I  first 
find  incompetency  fol"  office. 

If  a  man  struggle  for  an  official  position  for  which 
he  has  no  qualification,  and  win  that  position,  he  com- 
mits a  crime  against  God  and  against  society.  It  is 
no  sin  for  me  to  be  ignorant  of  medical  science  ;  but 
.f  ignorant  of  medical  science  I  set  myself  up  among 


RULERS.  667 

professional  men,  and  trifle  with  the  lives  of  people, 
then  the  charlatanism  becomes  positive  knavery.  It 
is  no  sin  for  me  to  be  ignorant  of  machinery  ;  but  if, 
knowing  nothing  about  it  I  attempt  to  take  a  steamer 
across  to  Southampton  and  through  darkness  and 
storm  I  hold  the  lives  of  hundreds  of  passengers, 
then  all  who  are  slain  by  that  shipwreck  may  hold  me 
accountable.  But  what  shall  I  say  of  those  who  at- 
tempt to  doctor  our  institutions  without  qualification, 
and  who  attempt  to  engineer  our  political  affairs 
across  the  rough  and  stormy  sea,  having  no  quali- 
fication ? 

We  had  at  one  time  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  men  who  put  one  tariff  upon  linseed  oil,  and 
another  tariff  upon  flaxseed  oil,  not  knowing  that 
they  were  the  same  thing.  We  have  had  men  in  our 
legislatures  who  knew  not  whether  to  vote  aye  or  no 
until  they  had  seen  the  wink  of  the  leader.  Polished 
civilians  acquainted  with  all  our  institutions  run  over 
in  a  stampede  for  office  by  men  who  have  not  the 
first  qualification.  And  so  there  have  been  school 
commissioners  sometimes  nominated  in  grog-shops, 
and  hurrahed  for  by  the  rabble,  the  men  elected  not 
able  to  read  their  own  commissions.  And  judges  of 
courts  who  have  given  sentence  to  criminals  in  such 
inaccuracy  of  phraseology,  that  the  criminal  at  the 
bar  has  been  more  amused  at  the  stupidity  of  the 
bench  than  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  his  own  pun- 
ishment. I  arraign  incompetency  for  office  as  one  of 
the  great  crimes  of  this  day  in  public  places. 

I  unroll  still  further  the  scroll  of  public  wickedness, 
and  I  come  to  intemperance. 

There  has  been  a  great  improvement  in  this  direc- 
tion. The  senators  who  were  more  celebrated  for 


668  RULERS. 

their  drunkenness  than  their  statesmanship  are  dead, 
or  compelled  to  stay  at  home.  You  and  I  very  well 
remember  that  there  went  from  the  State  of  New 
York  at  one  time,  and  from  the  State  of  Delaware, 
and  from  the  State  of  Illinois,  and  from  other  States, 
men  who  were  notorious  everywhere  as  inebriates. 
That  day  is  past.  The  grog-shop  under  the  national 
Capitol  to  which  our  rulers  used  to  go  to  get  inspira- 
tion before  they  spoke  upon  the  great  moral  and  finan- 
cial and  commercial  interests  of  the  country,  has 
been  disbanded.  But  I  am  told  even  now  under  the 
national  Capitol  there  are  places  where  our  rulers  can 
get  some  very  strong  lemonade.  But  there  has  been 
a  vast  improvement.  At  one  time  I  went  to  Wash- 
ington, to  the  door  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and  sent  in  my  card  to  an  old  friend.  I  had  not  seen 
him  for  many  years,  and  the  last  time  I  saw  him  he 
was  conspicuous  for  his  integrity  and  "uprightness ; 
but  that  day  when  he  came  out  to  greet  me  he  was 
staggering  drunk. 

The  temptation  to  intemperance  in  public  places 
is  simply  terrific.  How  often  there  have  been  men  in 
public  places  who  have  disgraced  the  nation.  Of 
the  men  who  were  prominent  in  political  circles 
twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago,  how  few  died  re- 
spectable deaths.  Those  who  died  of  delirium 
tremens  or  kindred  diseases  were  in  the  majority. 
The  doctor  fixed  up  the  case  very  well,  and  in  his 
report  of  it  said  it  was  gout,  or  it  was  rheumatism, 
or  it  was  obstruction  of  the  liver,  or  it  was  exhaus- 
tion from  patriotic  services ;  but  God  knew  and  we 
all  knew,  it  was  whiskey !  That  which  smote  the 
villain  in  the  dark  alley  smote  down  the  great  orator 
and  the  great  legislator.  The  one  you  wrapped  in 


RULERS.  669 

a  rough  cloth,  and  pushed  into  a  rough  coffin,  and 
carried  out  in  a  box  wagon,  and  let  him  down  into  a 
pauper's  grave  without  a  prayer  or  a  benediction. 
Around  the  other  gathered  the  pomp  of  the  land  ; 
and  lordly  men  walked  with  uncovered  heads  beside 
the  hearse  tossing  with  plumes  on  the  way  to  a 
grave  to  be  adorned  with  a  white  marble  shaft,  all 
four  sides  covered  with  eulogium.  The  one  man  was 
killed  by  logwood  rum  at  two  cents  a  glass,  the  other 
by  a  beverage  three  dollars  a  bottle.  I  write  both 
their  epitaphs.  I  write  the  one  epitaph  with  my 
lead-pencil  on  the  shingle  over  the  pauper's  grave ;  I 
write  the  other  epitaph  with  chisel,  cutting  on  the 
white  marble  of  the  senator :  "  Slain  by  strong 
drink." 

You  know  as  well  as  I  that  again  and  again  dissi- 
pation has  been  no  hindrance  to  office  in  this  coun- 
try. Did  we  not  at  one  time  have  a  Secretary  of  the 
United  States  carried  home  dead  drunk?  Did  we 
not  have  a  Vice-President  sworn  in  so  intoxicated 
the  whole  land  hid  its  head  in  shame  ?  Have  we  not 
in  other  times  had  men  in  the  Congress  of  the  nation 
by  day  making  pleas  in  behalf  of  the  interests  of  the 
country,  and  by  night  illustrating  what  Solomon  said 
"  He  goeth  after  her  straightway  as  an  ox  to  the 
slaughter,  and  as  a  fool  to  the  correction  of  the 
stocks,  until  a  dart  strikes  through  his  liver."  Judges 
and  jurors  and  attorneys  sometimes  trying  important 
causes  by  day,  and  by  night  carousing  together  in 
iniquity. 

What  was  it  that  defeated  the  armies  sometimes  in 
the  last  war?  Drunkenness  in  the  saddle.  What 
mean  those  graves  on  the  heights  of  Fredericksburg  ? 
As  you  go  to  Richmond  you  see  them.  Drunken- 


6/0  RULERS. 

ness  in  the  saddle.  So  again  and  again  in  the  courts 
we  have  had  demonstration  of  the  fact  that  impurity 
walks  tinder  the  chandeliers  of  the  mansion  and 
drowses  on  damask  upholstery.  Iniquity  permitted 
to  run  unchallenged  if  it  only  be  affluent.  Stand 
back  and  let  this  libertine  ride  past  in  his  five-thou- 
sand-dollar equipage,  but  clutch  by  the  neck  that  poor 
sinner  who  transgresses  on  a  small  scale,  and  fetch 
him  up  to  the  police  court,  and  give  him  a  ride  in  the 
city  van.  Down  with  small  villainy!  Hurrah  for 
grand  iniquity  !  , 

If  you  have  not  noticed  that  intemperance  is  one 
of  the  crimes  in  public  place  to-day,  you  have  not 
been  to  Albany,  and  you  have  not  been  to  Harris- 
burg,  and  you  have  not  been  to  Trenton,  and  you 
have  not  been  to  Washington.  The  whole  land  cries 
out  against  the  iniquity.  But  the  two  political  par- 
tifes  are  silent  lest  they  lose  votes,  and  many  of  the 
newspapers  are  silent  lest  they  lose  subscribers,  and 
many  of  the  pulpits  are  silent  because  there  are 
offenders  in  the  pews.  Meanwhile  God's  indignation 
gathers  li.ke  the  flashings  around  a  threatening  cloud 
just  before  the  swoop  of  a  tornado.  The  whole  land 
cries  out  to  be  delivered.  The  nation  sweats  great 
drops  of  blood.  It  is  crucified,  not  between  two 
thieves,  but  between  a  thousand,  while  nations  pass 
by  wagging  their  heads,  and  saying:  "Aha!  aha!  " 

I  unroll  the  scroll  of  public  iniquity,  and  I  come  to 
bribery — bribery  by  money,  bribery  by  proffered 
office.  Do  not  charge  it  upon  American  institutions. 
It  is  a  sin  we  got  from  the  other  side  the  water. 
Francis  Bacon,  the  thinker  of  his  century,  Francis 
Bacon,  of  whom  it  was  said  when  men  heard  him 
speak  they  were  only  fearful  that  he  would  stop, 


RULERS.  671 

Francis  Bacon,  with  all  his  castles,  and  all  his  emolu- 
ments, destroyed  by  bribery,  fined  $200,000,  or  what 
is  equal  to  our  $200,000,  and  hurled  into  London 
Tower,  and  his  only  excuse  was,  he  said  all  his  pred- 
ecessors had  done  the  same  thing.  Lord  Chancellor 
Macclesfield  destroyed  by  bribery.  Lord  Chan- 
cellor Waterbury  destroyed  by  bribery.  Benedict 
Arnold,  selling  the  fort  in  the  Highlands  for  $31,575. 
For  this  sin  Georgy  betrayed  Hungary,  and  Ahith- 
ophel  forsook  David,  and  Judas  kissed  Christ.  And 
it  is  abroad  in  our  land. 

You  know  in  many  of  the  legislatures  of  this  coun- 
try it  has  been  impossible  to  get  a  bill  through  unless 
it  had  financial  consideration.  The  question  has  been 
asked  softly,  sometimes  very  softly  asked  in  regard  to 
a  bill,  "  Is  there  any  money  in  it  ?"  and  the  lobbies  of 
the  legislatures  and  the  National  Capitol  have  been 
crowded  with  railroad  men  and  manufacturers  and 
contractors,  and  the  iniquity  has  become  so  great  that 
sometimes  reformers  and  philanthropists  have  been 
laughed  out  of  Harrisburg  and  Albany  and  Trenton 
and  Washington,  because  they  came  empty-handed. 
"  You  vote  for  this  bill,  and  I'll  vote  for  that  bill." 
"  You  favor  that  monopoly  of  a  moneyed  institution, 
and  I'll  favor  the  other  monopoly  for  another  institu- 
tion." And  here  is  a  bill  that  it  is  going  to  be  very 
hard  to  get  through  the  legislature,  and  you  will  call 
some  friends  together  at  a  midnight  banquet,  and 
while  they  are  intoxicated  you  will  have  them  promise 
to  vote  your  way. 

Here  are  $5,000  for  prudent  distribution  in  this 
direction  and  here  are  $1,000  for  prudent  distribution 
in  that  direction.  Now,  we  are  within  four  votes  of 
having  enough.  You  give  $5,000  to  that  intelligent 


6/2  RULERS. 

member  from  Westchester  and  you  give  $2,000  to 
that  stupid  member  from  Ulster,  and  now  we  are 
within  two  votes  of  having  it.  Give  $500  to  this 
member  who  will  be  sick  and  stay  at  home  and  $300 
to  this  member  who  will  go  to  see  his  great-aunt 
languishing  in  her  last  sickness.  Now  the  day  has 
come  for  the  passing  of  the  bill.  The  Speaker's 
gavel  strikes.  "  Senators,  are  you  ready  for  the  ques. 
tion  ?  All  in  favor  of  voting  away  these  thousands  or 
millions  of  dollars  will  say  '  aye.' '  "  Aye,  aye,  aye, 
aye !  "  "  The  ayes  have  it." 

Some  of  the  finest  houses  on  Brooklyn  Heights, 
and  Brooklyn  Hill,  and  on  Beacon  Street,  and  on 
Madison  Square,  and  on  Rittenhouse  Square  were 
built  out  of  money  paid  for  votes  in  legislatures. 
Five  hundred  small  wheels  in  political  machinery 
with  cogs  reaching  into  one  great  center  wheel,  and 
that  wheel  has  a  tire  of  railroad  iron  and  a  crank  to 
it  on  which  Satan  puts  his  hand  and  turns  the  center 
wheel,  and  that  turns  the.  five  hundred  other  wheels 
of  political  machinery.  While  in  this  country  it  is 
becoming  harder  and  harder  for  the  great  mass  of 
the  people  to  get  a  living,  there  are  too  many  men 
in  this  country  who  have  their  two  millions  and  their 
ten  millions  and  their  twenty  millions,  and  carry  the 
legislators  in  one  pocket  and  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  in  the  other. 

And  there  is  trouble  ahead.  Revolution.  I  pray 
God  it  may  be  peaceful  revolution  and  at  the  ballot- 
box.  The  time  must  come  in  this  country  when  men 
shall  be  sent  into  public  position  who  cannot  be  pur- 
chased. ,  I  do  not  want  the  union  of  Church  and 
State,  but  I  declare  that  if  the  Church  of  God  does 
not  show  itself  in  favor  of  the  great  mass  of  the 


RULERS.  673 

people  as  well  as  in  favor  of  the  Lord,  the  time  will 
come  when  the  Church  as  an  institution  will  be  ex- 
tinct, and  Christ  will  go  down  again  to  the  beach, 
and  choose  twelve  plain,  honest  fishermen  to  come 
up  into  the  apostleship  of  a  new  dispensation  of 
righteousness,  man  ward  and  God  ward. 

You  know  that  bribery  is  cursing  this  land.  The 
evil  started  with  its  greatest  power  during  the  last 
war,  when  men  said,  "  Now  you  give  me  this  contract 
above  every  other  applicant,  and  you  shall  have  ten 
per  cent,  of  all  I  mal^e  by  it.  You  pass  these  broken- 
down  cavalry  horses  as  good,  and  you  shall  have 
$5,000  as  a  bonus."  "  Bonus"  is  the  word.  And  so 
they  sent  down  to  your  fathers  and  brothers  and  sons 
rice  that  was  worm-eaten,  and  bread  that  was  moldy, 
and  meat  that  was  rank,  and  blankets  that  were 
shoddy,  and  cavalry  horses  that  stumbled  in  the 
charge,  and  tents  that  sifted  the  rain  into  exhausted 
faces.  But  it  was  all  right.  They  got  the  bonus. 

I  never  so  much  belived  in  a  Republican  form  of 
government  as  I  do  to-day,  for  the  simple  reason  that 
any  other  style  of  government  would  have  been  con- 
sumed long  ago.  There  have  been  swindles  en- 
acted in  this  nation  within  the  last  thirty  years 
enough  to  swamp  three  monarchies.  The  Demo- 
cratic party  filled  its  cup  of  iniquity  before  it  went 
out  of  power  before  the  war.  Then  the  Republican 
party  came  along,  and  its  opportunities  through  the 
contracts  were  greater,  and  so  it  filled  its  cup  of  in- 
iquity a  little  sooner,  and  there  they  lie  to-day,  the 
Democratic  party  and  the  Republican  party,  side  by 
side,  great  loathsome  carcasses  of  iniquity,  each  one 
worse  than  the  other.  Tens  of  thousands  of  good 
citizens  in  all  the  parties ;  but  you  know  as  well  as  I 

43 


674  RULERS. 

do  that  party  organization  in  this  country  is  utterly, 
utterly  corrupt. 

Now,  if  there  were  nothing  for  you  and  for  me  to 
do  in  this  matter,  I  would  not  present  this  subject. 
There  are  several  things  for  us  to  do. 

First,  stand  aloof  from  all  political  office  unless  you 
have  your  moral  principles  thoroughly  settled.  Do 
not  go  into  this  blaze  of  temptation  unless  you  are 
fireproof.  Hundreds  of  respectable  men  have  been 
destroyed  for  this  life,  and  the  life  to  come,  because 
they  had  not  moral  principle  to  stand  office.  You  go 
into  some  office  of  authority  without  moral  prin- 
ciple, and  before  you  get  through  you  will  lie,  and 
you  will  swear,  and  you  will  gamble,  and  you  will 
steal.  You  say  that  is  not  complimentary.  Well, 
I  always  was  clumsy  at  compliments. 

Another  thing  for  you  to  do  is  to  be  faithful  at  the 
ballot-box.  Do  not  stand  on  your  dignity  and  say, 
"  I'll  not  go  where  the  rabble  are."  If  need  be  put 
on  your  old  clothes  and  just  push  yourself  through 
amid  the  unwashed  and  vote.  Vote  for  men  who 
love  God  and  hate  rum.  You  cannot  say,  you  ought 
not  to  say,  "  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  this  matter." 
Then  you  will  insult  the  graves  of  your  fathers  who 
died  for  the  establishment  of  the  government  and  you 
will  insutt  the  graves  of  your  children  who  may  live 
to  feel  the  results  of  your  negligence. 

Another  thing  for  you  to  do :  Evangelize  the  people. 
Get  the  hearts  of  the  people  right,  and  they  will  vote 
right.  That  woman  who  this  afternoon  in  Sunday- 
school  teaches  six  boys  how  to  be  Christians  will  do 
more  for  the  future  of  the  country  than  the  man  who 
writes  the  finest  essay  about  the  Federal  Constitution. 
I  know  there  are  a  great  many  good  people  who  think 


RULERS.  6/5 

that  God  ought  to  be  recognized  in  the  Constitution, 
and  they  are  making  a  move  in  that  direction.  I  am 
most  anxious  that  God  shall  be  in  the  hearts  of  the 
people.  Get  their  hearts  right,  and  then  they  will 
vote  right. 

If  there  be  fifty  million  people  in  this  country, 
then  at  least  the  fifty-millionth  part  of  the  responsi- 
bility rests  on  you.  -  What  we  want  is  a  great  revival 
of  religion  reaching  from  sea  to  sea,  and  it  is  going 
to  come.  A  newspaper  gentleman  asked  me  in  St. 
Louis  a  few  weeks  ago  what  I  thought  of  revivals. 
I  said  I  thought  so  much  of  them  I  never  put  my 
faith  in  anything  else.  We  want  thousands  in  a  day, 
hundreds  of  thousands  in  a  day,  nations  in  a  day. 
Get  all  the  people  evangelized,  brought  under  Chris- 
tianized influences.  These  great  evils  that  we  now 
so  much  deplore  will  be  banished  from  the  land. 

And  remember,  my  friends,  that  we  are  at  last  to 
be  judged,  not  as  nations,  but  as  individuals — in  that 
day  when  empires  and  republics  shall  alike  go  down 
and  we  shall  have  to  give  account  for  ourselves,  for 
what  we  have  done  and  for  what  we  have  neglected 
to  do — in  that  day  when  the  earth  itself  will  be  a 
heap  of  ashes  scattered  in  the  blast  of  the  nostrils  of 
the  Lord  God  Almighty.  God  save  the  common- 
wealth of  New  York !  God  save  the  United  States 
of  America! 


CHAPTER  LXVI. 

DEDICATORY    PRAYER    AT    THE    NEW   ORLEANS    EXPO- 
SITION.  DECEMBER    1 6,    1884. 

"Lord  God  of  nations,  hear  our  opening  prayer. 
Gathered  from  all  parts  of  this  land,  and  from  both 
sides  of  the  sea,  and  from  under  all  skies,  -we  ask  for 
thy  blessing.  Let  it  come  upon  the  officers,  and  the 
directors,  and  the  managers  of  this  World's  Exposi- 
tion. May  this  day  be  the  beginning  of  a  new  dispen- 
sation of  national  prosperity  and  brotherhood.  May 
a  potent  influence  go  forth  from  these  palaces  of 
industry  which  shall  result  in  the  world's  having 
more  complete  apparel,  and  better  food,  more  com- 
fortable shelter,  and  more  thorough  education.  We 
pray  Thee  that  this  Exposition  may  result  in  spread- 
ing out  the  folded  sails  of  our  paralyzed  shipping,  in 
putting  bands  on  all  the  silent  factory  wheels,  and  in 
starting  the  plow  in  longer,  and  deeper,  and  richer 
furrow  ;  in  opening  the  door  to  all  the  hidden  treas- 
ures of  coal,  and  iron,  and  precious  metal,  and  in 
making  more  demand  for  printer's  type,  and  painter's 
pencil,  and  sculptor's  chisel,  and  carpenter's  rule,  and 
mason's  trowel,  and  author's  pen,  and  in  commencing 
for  all  the  land  a  process  of  Edenization.  By  this 
great  gathering,  day  after  day,  and  month  after 
month,  may  the  last  feeling  of  sectional  discord  be 
gone,  and  North  and  South,  East  and  West,  carry  the 
four  parts  of  one  great  national  harmony.  May  it 
be  the  unification  of  North  and  South  America ! 

676 


DEDICATORY   PRAYER.  677 

"Gracious  God !  we  pray  Thee,  by  means  of  this 
Exposition,  solve  for  us  the  agonizing  question  of 
supply  and  demand.  Alas !  that  there  should  be  so 
many  hungry  in  a  land  of  so  much  wheat,  so  many 
cold  in  a  land  of  so  much  cotton,  wool,  and  flax.  We 
ask  of  Thee,  O  God,  to  come  to  the  rescue  of  this 
nation.  Rouse  and  accelerate  all  our  financial,  com- 
mercial, political,  and  educational  interests,  and  as 
Thou  hast  made  of  one  blood  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  we  pray  that  this  gathering  of  all  nationalities 
may  impress  upon  us  a  true  sense  of  our  consan- 
guinity. 'Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth 
peace  and  good  will  toward  men.'  May  the  clock 
strike  'one'  upon  a  new  day  of  prosperity  and 
righteousness  and  plenty.  Quicken  all  our  slumber- 
ing industries,  and  let  the  hammers  sound  'the  anvil 
chorus'  from  sea  to  sea.  Under  thy  guidance  may 
capital  and  labor  be  crowned  side  by  side  under  these 
arches.  Give  one  clear  command  from  the  heavens 
to  this  nation,  and  say  unto  the  agricultural  and 
manufacturing,  educational  and  religious  interests  of 
this  country,  'Go  forward!' 

"Lord  God  of  Joshua !  we  do  not  ask  that  the  sun 
may  stand  still  for  a  few  hours  in  order  to  give  our 
best  interests  an  opportunity  of  winning  the  day ;  but 
we  do  ask  that  the  sun  may  never  go  down  on  the 
prosperity  of  this  people.  God  be  merciful  unto  us, 
and  bless  us,  and  make  thy  face  to  shine  upon  us,  so 
that  thy  name  may  be  known  upon  earth,  and  thy 
saving  help  among  all  nations,  and  as  we  have  heard 
that  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  nations  have  some- 
times hastened  their  overthrow,  and  as  we  know  that 
while  the  banqueting  went  on  the  finger  of  doom 
came  out  of  the  black  sleeve  of  the  darkness  and  wrote 


678  DEDICATORY   PRAYER. 

upon  the  wall,  '  Weighed  in  the  balance  and  found 
waiting,'  we  pray  Thee  that  as  our  prosperity  goes 
onward,  our  schools  and  our  colleges,  and  our 
churches,  and  our  reformatory  organizations  may 
prosper  and  triumph.  And  may  our  institutions  thus 
perfected  and  exalted,  remain  unmolested  from  inter- 
nal strife  and  from  foreign  attack,  until  that  day  when 
the  angel,  with  one  foot  on  the  land,  and  the  other 
on  the  sea,  shall  swear  by  Him  that  liveth  forever 
and  ever  that  time  shall  be  no  longer.  And  so  may 
the  world's  doom  and  the  nation's  overthrow  be 
simultaneous,  and  to  God  the  only  wise,  the  only 
good,  the  only  great,  be  glory  now  and  forever, 
Amen." 


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